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THE ENTHUSIASTS I 
OF PORT-ROYAL 




JANSENIUS, BISHOP OF YPRES 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY W. A. DOES AFTER THE I'AINTING BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE 



THE ENTHUSIASTS 
OF PORT-ROYAL 



BY 

LILIAN REA 



WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER^S SONS 

1912 






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TO 

MY MOTHER 



PREFACE 

" Croyez-moi, il faut choisir entre Dieu et le monde, entre la beaut6 
6temelle et la vaine apparence. . . . C'est quelque chose de vrai et de 
s6rieux qu'il nous faut pour vivre et pour mourir." 

La Duchesse de Broglie 

AFTER the lapse of centuries, when Pain, Sorrow, Struggle, 
Disappointment, and Weariness have been swallowed 
up in the Eternal Abyss, the picturesque side of a 
religious movement stands out to the impartial student of 
history in all the glory of prismatic colours. And, regarding 
it from a sociological and literary point of view, that which 
lends it interest and sympathy — is Enthusiasm. Nor is 
Enthusiasm used lightly in connection with religion, for the 
very etymology of the word justifies the application. Derived 
from the Greek evOov^, or evdeo^, that is, " full of the god," 
it may be interpreted to mean having a god within. 

It was one of the phases of this creative emotion which 
produced the society of solitaires or recluses who in the early 
seventeenth century associated themselves with the Abbey 
of Port-Royal, and formed with the original convent of nuns 
an organization which assumed a vast significance in the 
religious history of France. 

In an age of the extreme of earthly pomp and grandeur, 
the high ideals and unselfishness of these " Aristocrats of 
Catholicism," as they were called, were doubly conspicuous ; 
but, aside from any religious point of view, a chronicle of the 
extraordinary ardour, both collective and individual, of men 
who, searching after a higher spirituality, left brilliant positions 
in the world to go into the Desert to meditate and pray, inspires 



viii THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

human interest still. For, thinking to lose their social signifi- 
cance, they were in reality, both through their spiritual, 
literary, and pedantic sway, drawn back into the active life 
of their country. To them the profane history of the time 
of Louis XIV is indissolubly linked. 

Theologically, their religion was based on a dogma, called 
in derision by the outside world, Jansenism. Joseph de 
Maistre, in his book, Du Jansenisme ; portrait de cette secte, 
wrote sarcastically : 

** II n'y a point de Jans6nisme — c*est une chimere, une 
phantome cree par les Jesuites " ; 

and Mere Angelique for one always denied the term. In 1650 
she spoke of the continued slanders against " those whom 
they call Jansenists," and five years later wrote to the Queen 
of Poland : 

" If it please your Majesty, in writing to His Holiness you 
might say that you have particular knowledge of the persons 
whom they call Jansenists, that they are no other than very 
Catholic and very much attached to the Holy See." 

In reality, while the dogma was a lifeless thing locked up in 
the Halls of the Sorbonne, the working out of the peculiar 
system of religion which the name Jansenism stands for went 
on regardless of theological disputes, alive and pulsating with 
vital fire in the Monastery of Port -Royal. Here, even in the 
midst of later trouble there was, says Sainte-Beuve, 

*' in spite of everything, almost without interruption, the 
cloister, the sanctuary, the cell, and the grating for alms, 
the Christian practice of morals and the inviolable home of 
certain souls: the poor and silent study, the desert and the 
Grotto of Conferences near the Fountain of Mere Angelique, 
not far from the trees planted by the hand of d'Andilly." 

The Necrologe of Port-Royal and its Supplement are 
full of the most uncomplimentary allusions to the age itself, 
to which they attribute all the ills that happen to mortal flesh 
and blood, alluding constantly to the "press of the century"; 
the ** unhappiness of the century " ; the " distractions and 



PREFACE ix 

corruption of the century " ; etc. Racine relates that 
Jacqueline Pascal early renounced the "vain amusements of 
the century"; while in one of her letters Mere Ang Clique 
declares that 

" In this miserable century, it seems that the Devil has 

had the power to snatch away the Gospel, or at least its 
practice, from almost all Christians." 

Thus, it was not strange that in contrast with the unrest, 
vice, and unreality which the time, age, and France itself 
exhibited, the Port-Ro37al of the Solitaires, as distinct from 
that of the nuns, with its simplicity, love of truth, lack of 
excitement, and quiet seemed a harbour of peace. Its 
Enthusiasts looked upon it, indeed, as an asylum or port — 
a sort of quiet backwater, where, after having solved life's 
enigmas, one could retire and spend the remaining years in 
contemplation of weathered storms. 

" M. de Bascle," says the Necrologe, " after having escaped 
the shipwrecks of the century, retired to Port -Royal as to 
a port, there to find his salvation in penitence." 

On the one hand, therefore, it was, in common with 
other religious movements, a spiritual balance-wheel; 
on the other, an economic and social lever. Here the 
world ; there, the gifts of the spirit : Peace, Contentment, 
Heavenly Aspiration. But the condition attached to the 
acquirement of Peace, Contentment, and Heavenly Glory 
was Solitude — long hours of absolute loneliness, relieved 
by no earthly presence, no human touch, no conversation 
where mind sets fuse to fellow -mind to produce living 
thought, or to generate the electric current of sympathy. 

" The pleasure of solitude," exclaimed Pascal, " is an 
incomprehensible matter. I have discovered that all the 
misfortune of man comes from one thing, which is not to 
know how to remain in repose in one room." 

And only those who loved solitude could find at Port-Royal its 
heritage — Truth. It was love of Truth which in the beginning 
inspired Jansenius to create his interpretation of the Word in 



X THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

the quiet and isolation of the old town of Ypres in Belgium ; 
love of Truth again induced the Abb6 de St. Cyran, on his 
part, to go out into the world, to gather together and 
practically direct the realization of the brain aspirations of 
both himself and his friend. 

Studying the history of Port-Royal, we marvel to-day in 
the twentieth century, as did P^re Quesnel in the beginning 
of the eighteenth, that after having sustained the monastery 
for a hundred years, God should have permitted " this 
sanctuary of Truth and Charity to have been destroyed like 
a nest of error by the first ministers of the Church." Yet, 
though the Enthusiasts of Port-Royal ostensibly failed in 
their object of reforming the Roman Church from the inside, 
their attempt went far toward advancing the progress of 
humanity. A knowledge of their successes and failures 
should, therefore, be both a lesson and an inspiration. For 
Art and Religion are, after all, the things that eternally 
endure. Ever far away from kings and politics, ministers and 
functionaries, ideals and springs of character lie deep down 
in the heart of creation where, undisturbed by change of 
race or dynasty, the Earth Spirit weaves the garment of 
human life and history. 

L. R. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PART I 

EMBRYONIC PORT-ROYAL 

1610-1636 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. The Infancy of Jansenism — How a Friendship brought 

FORTH A Religion . . . . .3 

II. The Letter of the Law — The A ug us tin us of Cornelius 

Janssen . . . . . . .12 

III. Port-Royal and the Arnaulds— Port-Royal a Three- 

fold Force . . . . . .22 

IV. MfeRE ANGlfeLIQUE'S CONVERSION AND THE REFORM OF 

Port-Royal des Champs . . . -34 

V. Meeting with St. Cyran — Foundation of Port-Royal 

DE Paris. . . . . . -41 

VI. The Rule of St. Cyran begun . . . .48 

PART II 

PORT-ROYAL IN ITS GREATNESS 

1636-165 3 

I. The First Solitaires and their Enthusiasms . • 57 

II. Return of the Solitaires to Port-Royal des Champs, 

AND Early Days there . . . -71 

III. Death of Jansenius and St. Cyran . . .80 

IV. A Trio of Devotes at Port-Royal de Paris— I. La 

PrINCESSE de Gu^MlfeNE . . . . 90 

V. A Trio of D:6votes at Port-Royal de Paris— II. Marie 

DE Gonzague . . . . . -99 

VI. A Trio of Devotes at Port-Royal de Paris — III. La 

Marquise de Sable . . . . .106 

VII. The Letter of the Law again. Beginning of Persecu- 
tion. The "Book of the Frequent Communion" . 117 

VIII. Immediate Effect of the "Book of the Frequent 

Communion" on Port-Royal . . . .125 

IX. Les Petites !6coles — I. History, Masters, and 

Methods . ...... 133 



xii THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



V. Effect of the Provincial Letters on Port-Royal- 
Death OF Antoine Le Maitre 

VI. Persecution— Death of Mere Ang^lique 

VII. Culmination of Pascal's Religious Life 

VIII. A Fortunate Result of the Persecutions — Interest 
OF LA Duchesse de Longueville 

IX. Other Worldly Sympathizers . 

X. The Visits of the Archbishop . 

XI. Captivity ...... 

PART IV 



PAGE 



X. Les Petites ifecoLES— II. End: Results, Pupils . 143 

XI. The Return of the Nuns to Port- Royal des Champs 152 

XII. The Fronde . . . . . .161 

PART III 

THE SECOND PORT-ROYAL 

1653-1669 

I. The Enthusiasm of Jacqueline Pascal, and its Effect 

ON iter Brother Blaise . . . • i/i 

II. Letter of the Law again — The Effect of the Con- 
demnation of the Five Propositions said to be con- 
tained in the Augustinus 

III. The Provincial Letters .... 

IV. Miracles and Signs .... 



184 

193 
204 



214 
221 

227 

233 
241 
251 
259 



PORT-ROYAL DECADENT 

1669-1712 

I. The Peace of the Church — Death of Madame de 

Longueville . . . . . .269 

II. Racine's Quarrel and Reconciliation with Port- 
Royal ....... 276 

III. Persecution resumed ..... 288 

IV. Port-Royal in Conflict with Philosophy . .295 

V. Arnauld's Death — His Successors : Quesnel, Du Guet, 

and Boileau ...... 303 

VI. The Literary Glory of Port-Royal— Pascal and 

Racine: The PensAes and Athalie . . .311 

VII. Last Struggle against Persecution, and the Passing 

OF Port-Royal . . . . . -319 

VIII. Port-Royal of To-Day . . . . .329 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres .... Frontispiece 

From au Engraving by W. A. Does, after the Portrait by Philippe de 
Champagne 



FACING PAGE 

M^RE Ang^lique, Abbess and Reformer op Port-Royal . 34 

From Van Schuppen's Engraving of the Portrait by Philippe de 
Champagne 



The ABBt de St. Cyran . . , , .50 

After the Portrait by Philippe de Champagne 

Antoine Le MaItre, Port-Royal's First Solitaire . . 58 

After the Portrait by Philippe de Champagne 

Antoine Arnauld . . . , . .118 

From a Bronze Bust in the Louvre 



Arnauld d'Andilly 

From an Engraving by Jacques Lubin 



130 



Plan of Port-Royal des Champs . . , .154 

From an Engraving by Magdeleine Hortemels 

Blaise Pascal . , , , . , .174 

From Edelinck's Engraving of the Original Portrait by Quesnel 



xiv THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

FACING PAGE 

M&RE Agn&s and Sceur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne . 212 
From the EX'Voto of Philippe de Champagne in the Louvre 



Anne GEN^vifevE de Bourbon, Duchesse de Longueville 274 

From an Engraving by Waltener 

Pasquier Quesnel . f . . . . 304 

From an Engraving by N. P^tau 

Two Views of Port-Royal des Champs . . . 332 

I. The £^ Solitude" 

II. The Cloister 

From Engravings by Magdeleine Hortemels 



THE ENTHUSIASTS 
OF PORT-ROYAL 



r 



PART I 

EMBRYONIC PORT-ROYAL 
1610-1636 



CHAPTER I 

THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM— HOW A FRIENDSHIP 
BROUGHT FORTH A RELIGION 

" 11 faut travailler a realiser en nous-memes notre id^al ; sans quoi la 
vie est una degringolade continue ; et comme les orangs, aprds avoir com- 
mencer par la gentillesse, nous finissons par la brutalite." 

Prudhon 

IN the latter days of Henri iv two students, whose friend- 
ship was to mean much in the religious history of 
France, were studying theology in the Belgian town of 
Lou vain. The elder, born in 1581 at Bayonne in Southern 
France, of distinguished and wealthy parents, was no other 
than Jean du Verger de Hauranne, afterward famous as 
the Abbe de Saint-Cyran ; the younger, born in 1585 at 
Arkoy in Holland,^ near Leerdam, the son of poor and 
humble people, was Corneille Janssen, no less noted as 
Jansenius. 

Most unlike both in fortune and character, these two 
young men seemed framed each to complement the other. It 
is not quite certain when their friendship began, or whether 
they had more than a casual acquaintance in Lou vain, but in 
this little University centre each of them experienced the 
influence which decided his later development ; here, by 
different means, both were directed into similar paths of 
thought. 

Even as a youth, Jansenius showed a marked desire for 
study, and although very poor, managed to get to the 
University of Utrecht, where he began his higher education 
under both Catholics and Protestants, studying the Humanities 
under the former. Rhetoric and Dialectic under the latter, 

^Or'Acquoy. Clemencet in his Histoire G&nirale de Port-Royal {ni. 225) 
says Jansenius was born at Leerdam itself. 

3 



4 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

thus early learning the principles and habits of thought of 
each sect. 

Unfortunately, after some time these studies were inter- 
rupted by lack of means. To augment his resources, Jan- 
senius was forced to leave Utrecht and work at the first thing 
that offered — a carpenter's bench. As soon as he had earned 
enough for his purpose, he went back to Utrecht, and eventu- 
ally to Lou vain, where he continued his studies. At this 
period he first took the name of Jansenius — i.e, son of Jean ^ 
— ^and became acquainted with the Jesuits. Tremendously 
interested in their methods and principles, he begged to be 
taken into the Order. What was his surprise, however, when, 
after having accepted his friend, Othon Zilly, whom he him- 
self had converted to Jesuitism, the Society refused his 
membership, alleging that he was adapted by neither mind, 
health, disposition, nor constitution to become one of them.^ 
While this seeming injustice enraged Jansenius, it was at the 
same time the means of attracting to him the notice of a 
learned doctor of Louvain called Jacques Jonsson, a bitter 
enemy of the Jesuits, and a friend of Baius, the great cham- 
pion of Grace ^ in the Schools. Through Jonsson and Baius, 
Jansenius was thenceforth turned from the Jesuits, and 
interested in St. Augustine, whose tenets these two professors 

1 Clemencet, iii. p. 225. 

2 Rapin, Histoire de Jansinisme (Abbe Domenech), p. 8. 

3 " Grace " being the corner-stone, as it were, of Port-Royal, it may be 
well at the outset to try to explain its meaning. The strict dictionary de- 
finition is : "A supernatural gift of God freely bestowed upon man for the 
merits of Christ " (Blunt, Dictionary of Theology, p. 746). 

According to St. Augustine, it is : " that which heals the soul from the 
vice of sin " {De Spiritu et Letter a). 

St. Fran9ois de Sales said : " Inasmuch as Divine I.ove embellishes our 
soul, it is called Grace, rendering us agreeable to His Divine Majesty" 
{Introduction d, la Vie devote). 

In his Traits sur la PauvretS, St. Cyran thus expressed himself : " One 
could not define Grace in abridgement better than to say it is an empire 
and a sovereignty over all the things of the world," 

Following out this idea, one of the Confessors of Port-Royal defined 
Grace as " The sovereignty of God over men and the submission of men 
to God " {Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces pour servir A V Histoire de Port-Royal, 
p. 199). 

M6re Ang6Uque declared : " Grace is humble and the principle of humiUty. 
And humility is inseparable from gentleness " {M&moires et Relations, p. 191). 

Lastly, according to Pascal, Grace was the second birth of the^soul 
{Penshs, p. 359). 



THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM 5 

taught. Jacques Jonsson is said to have given Jansenius 
three things which influenced his life : 

1. A profound aversion for the Jesuits. 

2. An enthusiastic admiration for the Doctor of Grace, St. 

Augustine. 

3. A sympathy for Baius, whom he looked upon as 

a defender of St. Augustine, and a victim of the 
Jesuits.^ 

It was after this disappointment with regard to the Jesuits 
that, being advised on account of poor health to try the 
milder air of France, in 1604 Jansenius left Louvain and 
went to Paris. 

De Hauranne's experience was quite other than that 
of Jansenius, principally because his material circum- 
stances were more fortunate. At the age of twenty 
or twenty-one, he had already had a varied course 
of study, and was fully embarked on his theological 
career, having become acquainted with the Humanities 
in his home at Bayonne, before spending some time at 
the Sorbonne in Paris. Under these conditions, it 
was conceivable that his object in visiting Louvain was 
uniquely because of its University, at that time conceded 
to be the foremost in Europe. But instead of joining any 
of the forty-three colleges, in which were assembled over 
four thousand students from all over the world, or taking 
advantage of its very noted Faculty of Theology, De 
Hauranne entered the College of Jesuits. Here he soon 
gained distinction by his attainments, and when in 1604 
he delivered an Essay on Scholastic Philosophy, he at- 
tracted the notice of one of the Judges, the celebrated 
Juste Lipse. 

The salient quality of this " King of Humanism," who 
represented at Louvain the element hostile to the traditional 
philosophy, was a tremendous depth and breadth of thought, 
which carried him out and away from orthodox beliefs 
of his day into the realms of creative imagination. While 
recognizing the value of Aristotle and the Peripatetics, 
then considered the only guides in Ethics, or with- 
out combating Christianized Aristotelianism or Scholastic 

* Jansenius, ses Dernier s Moments, p. 91. 



6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Theology,^ Lipse wished to introduce the comparative study 
of all schools : 

" If," he exclaimed, *' it is necessary to belong to any 
school, there is but one which I wish to enter, and that is the 
Eclectic." 

A warm friendship gradually grew up between the famous 
philosopher and the young theological student from Bayonne, 
and although by some critics the teaching of Lipse is 
thought to have seduced the latter, Pere Rapin tells us 
that as Lipse himself was affable and civil, he endeavoured to 
soften and refine his rather uncouth pupil, to sweeten his 
character as it were by inculcating in him an affection for the 
humanities " which polish manners." 

Lipse's advice was cast on broad lines. Above every- 
thing he counselled De Hauranne to curb the native fire of 
his disposition by the study of the " Divine Science," and to 
embellish his spiritual life by the wealth of belles lettres fur- 
nished by the Ancients. In other words, the Good, the True, 
and the Beautiful were to be combined, and the Early Fathers 
of the Church to be consulted for principles both of Reform 
and Renaissance, as well as for a basis of Theology .^ 

In 1605, De Hauranne also left Lou vain and went to 
Paris in pursuit of further knowledge. On arriving there, 
he and Jansenius met again, and through his influence 
Jansenius became tutor to the son of a high official, 
thus earning enough to keep himself while continuing his 
studies at the Sorbonne. On his part, De Hauranne, not 
exposed to the same necessities, had leisure for literary and 
other experiences. The details of the life of neither student 
at this period are well known, but an incident told of Port- 
Royal's future director is interesting as marking a contrast in 
his character and mental development. 

The story brings us in familiar contact with Henri iv, 
who, talking one day with some of the cavaliers of his court, 
in reminiscence of past experiences in war, put the question 

1 Hallam defines Scholastic Theology as an " endeavour to arrange the 
orthodox system of the Church such as authority had made it, according to 
the rules and methods of the Aristotelian dialectics, and sometimes upon 
premises supphed by metaphysical reasoning " {Literature of Europe, vol. i. 
p. 30). 

^ Rapin, Histoire du Jans&nisme, p. 36. 



THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM 7 

as to what they would have done if, losing the battle of 
Arques, and obliged to put to sea with their leader in a small 
boat, they had been carried off by the tempest and left 
to starve. One of the cavaliers replied that he would have 
killed himself rather than let his liege lord die of hunger. 
This statement raised a grand debate on the subject of suicide. 
One of the courtiers, called the Comte de Cramail, brought 
the matter to his friend De Hauranne for his opinion, 
and was so charmed by the answers given that he begged 
their author to write them down. In 1609, therefore, De 
Hauranne published a pamphlet called : 

" Question royale et sa decision," 

in which he not only said that under certain circumstances it 
is permissible to take one's own life, but that sometimes it is 
obligatory.^ 

This pamphlet was afterwards unearthed by enemies, and 
cited against its author. In reality it was simply a youthful 
indiscretion, such a doctrine as the justification of suicide 
being entirely contrary to the teachings of St. Augustine. 
In his Cite de Dieu, the latter says expressly that it is not 
allowable to kill oneself, for thereby one opens the way to 
the greatest of all evils, sin. It is not known what Jan- 
senius thought of this his friend's first publication, but as it 
was written before their mutual exhaustive studies, he pro- 
bably paid no attention to its character. 

In any case, each student continued in Paris the tendencies 
begun in Louvain, and it was a similarity of ideals which 
finally drew them closely together. In the University of the 
metropolis they found the teaching less broad than at the 
Belgian town, and were struck with the fact that the most 
learned Doctors there did not go back to the Fathers, but 
were still holding to and teaching the Scholastics. The un- 
satisfactoriness of this method induced in both Jansenius and 
De Hauranne a growing desire to revive the true doctrine. 
Each, therefore, prepared himself to combat the old school, 
and De Hauranne was about to hold a conference on the 
"Summary of St. Thomas," when the assassination of 
Henri iv, by exciting public opinion against the Jesuits, 
turned thoughts in another direction. 

^ Question Royale, p. 32. 2 Book i. p. 29. 



8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

This event also determined the future movements of the 
two friends. De Hauranne decided to return to Bayonne, 
where the death of his father made his presence necessary at 
the moment ; and on arrival there, secluding himself in the 
neighbouring family country house of Champire or Champirat, 
on a height overlooking the sea, he devoted himself body and 
mind to the study of Antique Christianity in general and St. 
Augustine in particular. It was not long, however, before he 
felt the need of a congenial companion to share his solitude, 
and learning of the breakdown in health of Jansenius, he 
wrote begging the Belgian to come and visit him. On this 
invitation, Jansenius at once went to Bayonne (1611), and for 
six years he and his host carried on there an exhaustive study 
of the Fathers of the Church with the hope of discovering 
the real sources of the old Christian spirit .^ 

Soon their attention was concentrated on St. Augustine, 
in whom they felt they had discovered all they had sought; 
and so great was their enthusiasm for this Saint that they 
finally determined to devote their lives to the explanation 
and dissemination of the Augustinian doctrines, which to them 
seemed to incorporate the whole teaching needed for the 
regeneration of mankind. 

De Hauranne was of course the dominant spirit. His was 
indeed a rough nature — a characteristic product of that Basque 
country from which he sprang. In the Jesuit colleges where he 
was educated, his schoolmates considered him a restless spirit, 
vain and presumptuous, somewhat fierce and uncommuni- 
cative : at best, very eccentric in his manners and habits. ^ 
Of fine health, great vigour, filled with an insatiable desire for 
knowledge, regardless of the ill-health and impaired vitality 
of his companion, he acted on Jansenius like a relentless 
schoolmaster, prodding his pupil on to more and more labour. 

But, in spite of peculiarities w^hich seem the reverse of 
genial, Jansenius was not, as he himself said, one of those 
men who are made to be pedants all their lives. Although 
a somewhat weaker character than De Hauranne, he was at 
the same time infinitely more human, albeit also distinguished 
by rugged perseverance and obstinacy. His talent, we are 
told, lay not so much in Divine illumination as in a peculiar 

^ Clemencet, Histoire G&nirale de Port-Royal, iii. p. 227. 
2 Rapin, Histoire du Jans^nisme, p. 30. 



THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM g 

assiduity in making the most of the light which he had. At 
times his temper and impetuosity were those of a raging lion : 

" I am like inflamed saltpetre, which burns up for an instant, 
and then dissipates without leaving either odour or smoke," ^ 

he said humorously. 

The life of the two students was sedentary in the extreme, 
their only exercise being the game of battledore and shuttle- 
cock, in which they grew very expert, and in which they 
indulged between two Chapters of the Fathers ! Jansenius' 
enthusiasm, in fact, became so great that he scarcely ever 
went to bed at all, but spent his days mostly in an old chair 
which De Hauranne had had fitted up with cushions and a 
writing-desk for him.^ In this seat, he read, wrote, ate, and 
slept — ^that is, between times, rarely more than four hours 
out of the twenty-four. Madame de Hauranne used to say 
to her son that he would " kill this good Fleming by dint of 
making him study." ^ 

. It was therefore fortunate when after a time both scholars 
became engaged in the world about them, the former being 
made Canon of the Bayonne Cathedral, the latter Principal 
of a College founded by the bishop of the town. Even then, 
they had little intercourse of any kind in the world outside 
their work, and although neither was a monk, both apparently 
shunned female society. At first in his own family, and 
afterwards in his active life as a priest, De Hauranne was 
necessarily brought into contact with women, all of whom 
adored while they feared him, but at no epoch of his life 
did the feminine element seem to have entered into the environ- 
ment of Jansenius. He indeed fled any personal relationship 
with the sex, trying even when he was dying to refuse the 
ministrations of sisters of charity, and confessing that since 
the age of fifteen he had never been in need of any service 
from a woman.* His idea of the utility of women was evi- 

^ Ellies Du Pin, Histoire EccUsiastique du XVII Steele, ii. p. 12. 

2 Clemencet, Histoire Litteraire de Port-Royal, p. 14. 

^ Clemencet, Histoire GhiSrale de Port-Royal, p. 228. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. ii. p. 93. 

Clemencet says in his Histoire Ginirale de Port-Royal (iii. p. 232) : " On 
ne lui a jamais reproche sur ses mceurs," and this in spite of Pdre Rapin's 
scandalous stories of Jansenius' connection with a fascinating devote in 
Brussels {Histoire du Jansinisme, p. 268). 



10 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

dently akin to that embodied in plain words by the Jesuit 
Pere Garasse : 

" Of my fashion of writing I shall say but one word : I 
try to write concisely, and without disguise of metaphor as 
much as possible. I know that the thing is not easy, for I 
believe that it is with metaphors as with women — ^they are 
a necessary evil." ^ 

In 1617, Jansenius left Bayonne, and went back to Louvain, 
where he was made Principal of the new College of Holland 
called " La Pulcherie," and where in 1619 he received his 
doctor's degree. Leaving Bayonne at the same time, De 
Hauranne went to Poitiers, where he became Canon of the 
Cathedral, after which he was made Prior of Bonneville, and 
finally in 1620 he obtained the Abbey of St. Cyran in Brenne 
on the frontier of Touraine, Berry, and Poitou. From thence- 
forth, De Hauranne, Twentieth Abbot of the Monastery, 
was known as the Abbe de St. Cyran. 

As a last remembrance of Jansenius' personality, a com- 
parison has been drawn by Sainte-Beuve between him and 
St. Frangois de Sales and St. Cyran.^ If asked, says the his- 
torian, what attribute of God struck him most, St. Fran9ois 
might characteristically have replied : 

'' Charity of the Son, Charity, Humility ! " 

while St. Cyran's answer would have been : 

" Power — that terrible power of the Father ! Abyss ! 
Eternity ! " 

Actually confronted with this question one day, it is chronicled 
that Jansenius exclaimed : 

" Truth ! " 

1 Port-Royal, i. p. 303. 

The feminine influence was generally shunned by the solitaires at Port- 
Royal, even the Great Arnauld, who upheld Boileau in his Satire on Women, 
felt with the Satirist that virtuous women were rare, and that it was better 
to avoid the sex altogether. 

" Sans doute, et dans Paris, si je sais bien compter, 
II en est jusqu'^ trois que je pourrais citer." 

Satire X. (Euvres, Boileau. 

2 Port-Royal, vol. i. p. 302. 



THE INFANCY OF JANSENISM il 

" Truth is what he meditated continually : he sought it 
night and day in study ; and in rare moments of laxness, 
when he walked in his garden, one could sometimes hear him 
cry aloud, as with a deep sigh he raised his eyes to heaven : 
' O truth ! O truth r "^ 

1 Clemencet, Histoire Ginirale de Port-Royal, iii. p. 231. 



CHAPTER II 

THE LETTER OF THE LAW— THE AUGUSTINUS OF 
CORNELIUS JANSSEN 

[^"TheLetterkilleth, but the spirit giveth life," said St. Augustine. " . . . O 
ye sages of the Academy, is there no certainty that men may grasp for the 
guidance of Hfe ? Nay, let us seek more earnestly and never despair." 

" Le Jansenisme est I'heresie le plus subtile que le Diable ait jamais tissue." 

TO understand the ideas of Jansenius and St. Cyran, we 
must consider for a moment the circumstances which 
caused their revolt, and the events of the troubled 
sixteenth century which preceded them — of that epoch which 
saw the birth of both Renaissance and Reform, and which has 
been called the most dramatic in history : 

' ' Two great events dominated and filled it . The Renaissance 
which illumined and the Reform which soaked it in blood." ^ 

A modern French writer 2 analyses the pursuit of the Good, 
the True, and the Beautiful as the three objects of civilization. 
In France all would have been well could Renaissance, 
as typifying the Beautiful, but have united with Reform, 
anxious to become the incarnation of the Good and the True. 
Curiously enough these two movements, though originally 
interdependent, soon began to oppose one another. And 
whereas at first Reform made use of Renaissance to give 
it wings with which to fly,^ it soon combated everything 

^ Comte Leo de Ponc}^ Vie de Margttirife d'AngouMme, 
2 Maulde de la Clavidre, Louise de Savoie et FranQois i^'". 
^ Through its incitement to a study of the classical tongues, Renaissance 
also opened the way to an investigation of the Scriptures by laymen, making 
comparisons between the Catholic faith and the religions and philosophies 
of other lands possible. Thus, unconsciously, Renaissance produced the 
revolt called the Reformation. 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW 13 

that Renaissance taught. To its stem votaries, Art and the 
Beautiful were snares of the Devil. Blinded, moreover, by 
their hatred of the abuses which had crept into the Roman 
Church, the first French Reformers could see no difference 
between Pagan ideology and that of Rome. On the one 
hand, all the old Pagan gods were huddled together with 
the row of Saints and Martyrs of the Roman Church, while 
on the other, majestic and awe-inspiring, Jesus Christ stood 
alone. ^ 

During the long wars of religion which followed the reign 
of Francis the First, by a policy of sweet and tolerant methods 
which distinguished acts from intentions,^ the Roman Church 
regained the greater part of her former dominion in France. 
Yet even the submission of Henri iv — ^his " saut perilleux," 
as he called it, — could not stifle the revolt, and the beginning 
of 1600, although signalized by the apparent victory of 
Catholicism, found the country in a state of religious unrest. 
For though the practice of the Reform had often been bigoted 
and narrow in the extreme, its principles were those of that 
eternal freedom toward which the human mind has ever 
aspired. Thus, whatever victories the Catholic Reaction, 
or Counter Reformation, may have entailed to the Established 
Church, the progress of human thought, once awakened, was 
ever striving for liberty, and religious emancipation was 
written on the book of the future in France as elsewhere in 
the thinking world. In vain had fanatics — ^themselves also 
animated, be it said, by true sentiments of loyalty and patriot- 
ism — flighted the fires which burned the works of Luther 
before their beautiful Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. In 
vain they had banished Lefevre, Farel, and Calvin from their 
native land. The ideals of religious independence taught 
by these men had survived through a centmry of war and 
bloodshed, and were pointing to a freer and more spiritual 
Catholicity — again to be purified by another Renaissance and 
another Reform. 

On his accession to the throne, three tasks had lain before 
Henry iv : the re-establishment of authority in the govern- 
ment, of prosperity in the country, and of peace in men's 

^ J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, L'Histoire de la Reformation du XVI SUcle, 
iii. p. 72. 

2 The famous Casuistry afterward combated by Pascal, 



14 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

minds. ^ During a short twelve years (for if was not until 
1598 that both he and France could stop to take breath) this 
great king had nobly fulfilled the first two requirements. 
France had nearly recovered from the devastating wars, 
the throne was all-powerful. As to the third condition — to 
secure peace, Henri iv had renounced deep religious con- 
victions and vowed to live and die a Catholic At a time when 
no other country in Europe knew how to practise tolerance, 
he had brought back the Jesuit to France, and by the Edict 
of Nantes assured safety to the Huguenots, even allowing 
the latter to hold office under the government, thus apparently 
giving religious liberty to France. And yet, although for this 
heritage of humanity left him by his grandmother. Marguerite 
d' Angoultoe, he paid the price of his life, he had not been able 
to bring peace to men's minds. The victorious Catholic Church 
itself was in a state of great danger, all the more menacing 
because the evil came from within.^ Its factions were already 
quarrelling among themselves. The Royal Catholics — or 
those who had sided with Henri iv against the League — 
advocated the right of self-government bj^ national churches. 
The ancient Leaguers, on the other hand, looked upon the 
Pope as the fountain of ecclesiastical power, and wanted no 
other dominion. The one represented the Galilean, the other 
the Ultramontane party. 

Properly speaking, the Sorbonne, as acknowledged Judge 
of the Church, should have settled all theological disputes. 
But in 1600, like the country and the nobility, weakened by 
the Wars of the League, the Sorbonne had lost its backbone. 
The rise of this Faculty of Theology of the Paris University 
had been very rapid. Founded in the time of Louis ix, 
shortly afterward, through its introduction of the Scholastic 
Theology, it had become so famous as to overshadow and 
lend distinction to the whole University. But since then it 
had made mistakes. It is true that in 1469 it had been the 
means of bringing printing into France, yet it had stubbornly 
opposed the Renaissance, ^ fiercely combated the Reform as 
well, and justified the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. By 
this time theological discussions had so invaded the outside 

1 Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire de France, vol. 6. ii. p. 22. 

2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. i. p. 7. 

5 Cabantous, Maygutrite d'AngouUme et les Debuts de la RSforme, p. 37. 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW 15 

world that both belief and action seemed paralysed, and 
scholars began to wonder what indeed the spiritual founda- 
tions of Catholicism were. Palpably the store of ancient 
piety and wisdom underlying its great edifice must still be 
there, but how revive and vivify it ? 

To resolve the problem, three sincere Churchmen, destined 
during the next fifty years to exercise a tremendous influence 
in the religious world, met together the year after the murder 
of Henri iv, when for the moment the star of the Jesuits had 
paled. Each had his individual idea for the restoration of a 
pure Catholicism ; each set about in his own way to put it into 
execution. M. de Berulle, believing that learned priests could 
by their example and teaching disseminate the leaven of 
holiness, founded the Oratory ; M. Vincent de Paul, with the 
idea of instructing people in the provinces and abroad, insti- 
tuted the association of missionaries ; M. Bourdoise, to whose 
mind the remedy lay in reforming the clergy, assembled a new 
spiritual body of priests in the monastery of St. Nicolas du 
Chardonnet.i 

It was eight years later, when Richelieu's star was just 
appearing on the horizon of the Court, that Jansenius and St. 
Cyran reached in Bayonne the solution of their inquiry into 
the cause of the corruption in the Church. Their studies 
had not by any means led them into a desire to leave the 
Roman Faith. On the contrary, like that early reformer. 
Marguerite D'Angouleme,^ sister of Francis the First, they 
were alone possessed with a longing to bring about the 
purification of an institution to which they clung with all 
their instincts. The cause of the corruption lay, they felt, 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, Discours Prdliminaire. 
' It was at this same epoch, that Madame de Chantal, under the inspiration 
of St. Fran9ois de .Sales, founded the Convent of the Visitation, which was 
also to cope with the corruption of the day by attracting souls through the 
tender lenient side of Christianity. 

2 If Francis the First brought Italy to France and gave his country that 
taste and distinction in Letters and the Arts which has since never left it. 
Marguerite combined in her personaUty the ideal of the Good, the True, and 
the Beautiful. She had come to the New Rehgion through the inspiration 
of Renaissance, and as her ideal was that of maintaining the unity of 
Catholicism by infusing into it the tenets of the Reform, she was practically 
a forerunner of the Jansenists, therefore to them the central figure of the 
sixteenth century. (See the various lives of this princess by Cabantous, 
Felix Frank, Sainte-Beuve, etc.) 



i6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

in a strange forget fulness of earlier stricter principles ; the 
remedy, in a renaissance of the teachings of St. Augustine, 
Bishop of Hippo, whose symbol in the ideography of the Roman 
Church to-day is a flaming heart, his title " Doctor of Grace." 
Born in Africa twelve centuries before the era of Jansenius 
and St. Cyran, this father of the Early Church had fought and 
won his battle of the soul in the little pagan country of Greece, 
whence had afterward come the revivifying inspiration toward 
literature and art . His spiritual development had been through 
the religion of the Manichees — a material scheme which sym- 
bolized spiritual things in the earthly — and by way of Plato, 
who by appealing to the intellect taught man to look beneath the 
materialistic. After Plato, examination of the deeper strata of 
Ethics led him to that high ideal which Christianity stands for. 
To use his own words : 

" The light of peace was shed upon my heart and every 
shadow of doubt melted away." ^ 

Thus it was through mystic depths that his inner being 
had blossomed out into the clear radiance of a Christianity 
ruled over by Divine Grace, and which " understood invisible 
things by the visible." His dogma was based on the idea of 
universal guilt as the result of Adam's sin — a guilt which 
entails on the human race bodily infirmity and death .2 

Pelagius, an English monk born on the same day as the 
African Father, and educated in theology originating in Pales- 
tine, was the great contemporary opponent of the Augustinian 
ideas. He denied that the Fall had annihilated Free Will, 
and contended that Man was able without any assistance to 
perform the commandments of God. Sin was, therefore, not 
an infirmity of human nature, but of the will. In thus up- 
holding the greatness of human nature, the Pelagians not only 
upset the whole scheme of redemption in Christ, but rendered 
priesthood unnecessary. 

To St. Augustine this heresy was most terrible, and it was 
for combating it and the Pelagians in general that he received 
the title of Doctor of Grace.^ 

^ Confessions, Book viii. p. 288. 

2 Blunt' s Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 558. 
2 Strangely enough in St. Augustine's century, the fourth, the Christian 
Church was fighting almost the same problems as those facing it again at 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW 17 

Although they were but partially understood, the writings 
of St. Augustine exercised a great and lasting influence on 
the early Church. ^ St. Thomas d'Aquin, who lived nine 
centuries afterward (1227-1274), was the first priest to sustain 
the August inian ideas on Grace and Predestination. His 
" Summary of Theology " followed the Scholastic method, 
and his principles were adopted by the Church without any 
real comprehension of the meaning of the word *' Grace." 

It is said that after leaving Bayonne, Jansenius became 
more and more absorbed in the study of St. Augustine, until 
he neglected his work at the College, and even feared being 
called to a chair in the University lest it should disturb him 
in his one preoccupation. ^ He said he could have passed his 
life agreeably on a desert island with his copy of St. Augustine 
as his only companion. With characteristic impetuosity, he 
forgot the necessity of a balance-wheel, and threw himself 
exclusively into the works of the " Doctor of Grace." ^ Not 
content with reading all of St. Augustine's writings through 
once, he read them each ten times, the treatises against 
the Pelagians thirty times. The outcome of this fascination, 
almost become an obsession, can be seen in a letter written to 
St. Cyran in March 1621, wherein he declares his astonishment 
at the height and breadth of St. Augustine, and the fact that 
his doctrine is so little known among learned men, not only of 
his (Jansenius') century, but of past ages. In the same letter, 
Jansenius confesses that until his ideas are quite formulated 
he dare not tell any one what he thinks about many subjects 
of the times, especially Grace and Predestination.* 

the beginning of the seventeenth. To combat these evils, the Fourth 
Century Church had fixed its mind on three things : 

1. The Christology of revealed religion. 

2. Church Authority and Discipline. 

3. Human Nature in its relation to Divine Grace. 
See Blunt's Dictionary of Doctrinal Theology. 

' A very recent Jansenist historian, Jules Paquier, says : " The writings 
of St. Augustine and particularly those on Grace have had an influence 
without parallel in the Latin Church ; after the Apostles, he was the great 
luminary of the Church" [Le Jansinisme, p. 39). 

2 It was not until 1630 that the King of Spain made him Professor of 
Scriptural History in the University of Louvain (Ellies Du Pin, Histoire 
EccUsiastique , ii. p. 5). 

' " Which," he said, he read with " un etrange desir et profit." 

* For Letters of Jansenius, see La Naissance du Jansinisme d&couverte, 
by le Sieur de Preville. 



i8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Not having met since 1617, both Jansenius and St. Cyran 
had for some time been anxious for an interview in which they 
could discuss these subjects so near the heart of each. In 
1621, when this long-looked-forward-to meeting took place at 
Louvain, they came to an understanding as to their great 
project, and the means by which they might propagate the 
Doctrine of Grace as they understood it. It was decided 
that in secret Jansenius should prepare an exhaustive work 
as the basis of principles which St. Cyran should work out in 
practice. On his part, at this very meeting, St. Cyran dic- 
tated the forms and heads of the Chapters for the Letter of 
their Law to be called the Augustinus, and it was agreed, as 
their combined writings were intended to express a whole, that 
St. Cyran's pen name should be " Aurelius." Together they 
thus completed the Latin name of St. Augustine, Aurelius 
Augustinus. 

Sainte-Beuve tells a delightfully poetic, if not absolutely 
historic, story (confirmed by Clemencet) of the next meeting 
of the friends, two years later, at Peronne, a town on the 
frontier of Belgium. Here, he says, 

" Jansenius arrived on horseback, the evening of 29th April, 
in order to enter France with the month of May." ^ 

Alas ! in spite of the love of nature displayed by Jansenius 
on this occasion, there is little of the gaiety of Spring in the 
work which the two enthusiasts again discussed in this second 
interview : it is sombre with the earnestness of November and 
the falling leaf, and has no hint of the joy of life, or of pure 
beauty as such. The poetry of existence, indeed, would seem 
to cling not to its admonitions, but to its mistakes. 

After 1623, Jansenius and St. Cyran had other fleeting 
glimpses of each other, St. Cyran re- visiting Louvain on one 
occasion, but most of their subsequent intercourse was by 
letter. For twenty years Jansenius worked on his book, 
and in writing it he believed his doctrine to be not only sound 
but orthodox. Twice he submitted it to the Pope, and in the 
Prologue of the whole work he asserted that he had not taught 

" what is true or false, or what one may hold or reject accord- 
ing to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, but what St. 
Augustine has contended one must believe." 

1 Port- Royal, i. p. 303. 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW 19 

In the Augustinus, therefore, employ ing|neither the scholastic 
nor the academic, but the historical method,^ he endeavoured 
to recover and demonstrate the doctrine of St. Augustine. 

One part of the thick in-folio volume is given over to a 
history of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. The second 
treats of the state of man before the Fall, and his actual present 
state. The third goes into a long discussion of possible cure 
and the Grace administered by Jesus Christ. In his Preface, 
describing the idea of Pelagius, the author confessed that 
without very special Divine Grace it would be difficult to 
avoid being partly seduced at least by the " fatal sweetness " 
of the doctrine. Later on he turned his criticism, not against 
the modern Semi-Pelagians — under whom were understood 
the Jesuits and especially the Molinists 2 — ^but against Theo- 
logians in general, who in their ideas had drifted absolutely 
away from St. Augustine, and who even while keeping in their 
hearts as Catholics the Christian faith, had lost sight of every- 
thing ennobling from Hope and Nature to Grace — whether of 
angels or men, and under whatever name soever, sufficient, 
efficacious, operative, co-operative, predisposing, subsequent 
or exciting. Insensible to all these things, they followed 
neither the Old nor the New Testament.^ 

Unhappily, the Latin form of the book and the heated 
manner of the arguments did not make for clearness, although 
the style of the work itself is, according to critics, at times 

" most brilliant, arresting attention by a sort of theological 
beauty, of a Miltonian if not a Dantesque depth of sutble 
thought." * 

The Augustinus was in reality so abstruse that soon Jan- 
senius' enemies contended that he had not understood St. 
Augustine at all. Moreover, a great deal of this lack of lucidity 
was attributed to indigestion of the subject-matter. In 
common with most writers on theology, Montaigne's rather 

1 Which, says Sainte-Beuve, " he accompanied and sought to explain by 
the psychological and metaphysical Christian method " {Port-Royal, ii. p. 99). 

3 Followers of Molina, a Spanish Jesuit, author of a book called Concord 
between Grace and Free Will. In this book Molina sustained that grace 
never lacked any one and that the Will was always free to receive or reject 
all the graces. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 127. 

* Ibid, p. 97. 



20 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Rabelaisian advice might with profit have been given to 
Jansenius : 

" Order a purgation for your brain ; it will be better 
employed than for your stomach/' ^ 

The greatest crime of which Jansenius was accused was 
that of putting into the words of his model St. Augustine 
the principles of pure Calvinism. As Michel le Vassor ex- 
pressed it : 

" Jansenius read St. Augustine with the spectacles of 
Calvin." ^ 

What gave colour to this accusation was the fact that in his 
L Institution Chretienne, Calvin cites St. Augustine con- 
stantly as his authority on Predestination and other points. 
Critics overlooked the fact, however, that on leaving the 
Roman Church, the great Reformer threw off Penitence, the 
Eucharist, etc., as vain forms, keeping to but " one universal 
sacrament," that of the Scripture itself. Jansenius, on the 
contrary, was very tenacious of all the sacraments of the 
Church, being unorthodox, or rather Gallican, in the one 
particular alone : his lack of faith in the infallibility of 
the Pope. It is also very misleading to students of these 
controversies that confidence in St. Augustine was not con- 
fined to Jansenius and Calvin ; the Jesuits also recognized 
him as sound, and the Papal See never denied the orthodoxy 
of the August inian doctrine. Gibbon saw the incongruity of 
the dispute, and in his Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire 
said humorously : 

" The Roman Church has canonised St. Augustine and 
crushed Calvin. However, as the difference of their opinions 
is imperceptible even with the aid of a theological micro- 
scope, the Molinists are overwhelmed by the authority of the 
Saint, and the Jansenists are dishonoured by their resemblance 
to a heretic. . . ." ^ 

In any case, whatever Jansenism appeared to the different 
sects, its founders intended it to be a pure renaissance of 
the spirit of the Early Fathers and the ancient dogma and 

1 Causeries d'un Curieux, Feuillet de Conches, ii. p. 7. 

' Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 106. ^ Jbi^^ p. 105. 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW 21 

authority of Christian tradition. To-day the peculiar interest 
which attaches to the Augustinus is not its literary or moral 
value, but the fact that throughout the whole seventeenth 
century, and far into the eighteenth, it created a long and 
interminable conflict, acting as a sort of ethical leech, which, 
placed by Doctors of Divinity on the diseased part of Catholicity, 
drew out innumerable bad humours from its blood. It is safe 
to say that, had the Augtistinus never been published, the 
dogma of Jansenius and St. Cyran might have for ever remained 
hidden in the schools, and that these two sincere men would 
have been judged by their acts alone. Its publication was a 
challenge to the whole religious world of France, and, like the 
defiance of Luther in the face of the Diet of Worms,^ such a 
gauntlet once throwTi down had to be taken up by those whose 
very existence was at stake. 

" Truly," as saith St. Augustine, " the Letter killeth, but 
the Spirit giveth life." 

^ Luther said : "I shall defend myself as did Jesus Christ. ' If I have 
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil,' said he. How much more I, who am 
but ashes and dust, and who can so easily err, should I desire that each 
avow what he may have against my doctrine" (J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, 
Reformation, ii. p. 249). 



CHAPTER III 

PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS— PORT- ROYAL 
A THREEFOLD FORCE 

" Qui ne connait pas Port-Royal, ne connait pas I'humanitfe." 

ROYER-COLLARD 

To the mind of the average person to-day, Port-Royal 
has a far-away, dim suggestion of interest and import ; 
but, if questioned concerning it, he would be puzzled 
to put his vague remembrances into words. And yet in the 
days of Louis xiii and xiv the name was synonymous on 
the one hand for all that was heretical, blasphemous, and 
revolutionary — on the other, everything saintly, erudite, 
and inspiring. 

Like the old religious paintings, Port-Royal was a triptych. 
The central panel represented Port-Royal des Champs, ttie 
two on either side, Port-Royal de Paris, and the Society of 
Port-Royal respectively. Like a true trinity, these parts 
are inseparable, and cannot be understood one without the 
other, for although each depicted a picture of a different 
scene and history, the same feeling and emotion held the 
three together. In themselves, these separate organisations 
possessed the requisites said to be essential to the religious 
life : emotion, conception, and sentiment ; ^ each has left 
to-day some few but most tangible evidences of its former 
existence. 

Our first concern is with the oldest panel, Port-Royal 
des Champs, the parent monastery, said to have been founded 
in 1204 by Mathilde de Garlande, wife of a Montmorency- 
Marli, who, on going off to the Fourth Crusade, left fifteen 
thousand livres income to be applied to pious uses. Not 

^ C. p. Tiele, Elements of the Science of Religion, ii. p. 22. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 33 

long after her husband's departure, Mathilde, in the hope of 
propitiating the gods toward his safe return and salvation, 
concerted with the Archbishop of Paris, Eudes de Sully, for 
the building of a monastery accommodating twelve nuns.^ 

As the generic name of the country thereabouts was 
Porrois, the monastery founded in 1204 came in course of 
time to be known as Port-Roi, and finally Port-Royal. 

A more picturesque legend of its foundation was, it was 
said, discovered by Mere Angelique in the archives of the 
monastery four hundred years later. This story, written on 
a slip of paper, but cherished by faithful Port-Royalists, 
attributes its endowment to the grateful munificence of King 
Philippe Auguste, who, hunting one day in the great primeval 
forest then surrounding Paris, becoming separated from his 
followers just as night was falling, found welcome refuge 
in a little chapel of St. Lawrence erected on the spot.^ Hence 
the appropriate name of Royal Haven, or, in French parlance, 
Port-Royal. 

One description of Port-Royal says it was situated in 
a valley, surrounded by " prodigious mountains, the church 
steeple being lost to view beneath them." ^ This choice of 
a site was not peculiar, for each of the different monkish 
orders had its own ideal in this respect. One chose the 
forest, another the hill, another the valley. St. Bernard, 
who became the patron saint of the new monastery of Porrois, 
prescribed the depth of a profound valley, such as that of 
the river Yvette, for his monks or nuns, as from thence they 
could not look out on the world, but were necessarily obliged 
to keep their eyes fixed on heaven.* 

According to an eighteenth-century historian, Port-Royal 
was built on the banks of a large pond nearly filling the valley 
of the river Yvette, only six leagues from Paris, on the 
road to Chevreuse, and near Versailles. A dyke served as 

1 Clemencet, Histoire Ginirale de Port-Royal, p. 2. And here at the 
outset it is as well to explain that neither the historians of Port -Royal, nor 
the Port-Royalists themselves, ever call their institution a convent, but 
always either Abbey or Monastery. The reason for this is not known (Sainte- 
Beuve, i. S7)- 

2 Lancelot, Mimoires touchant la Vie de M. de St. Cyran, ii. p. 451. 

5 From the Relation of a Visit to Port-Royal in 1C98, quoted by M. Andre 
Hallays in his recent Pilerinage de Port-Royal, p. 102. 
* Tronchay, AbrigS de I' Histoire de Port-Royal, 



24 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

a cloister, while the waters of the pond, passing through the 
garden, formed a canal. At all epochs, this swampy pool 
seems to have been the evil genius of the monastery, for, 
frequently overflowing into the canal, it filled the precincts 
with malarial stenches and poisonous vapours. 

In shape the early conventual buildings formed a square, 
with a large court in the middle. This court was ornamented 
by a dove-cot, a few trees here and there, a great elm in 
the centre. The earliest church was a fine old thirteenth- 
century edifice, dedicated to Notre-Dame, and built in the 
form of a Latin cross by Robert de Luzarches, architect of 
Amiens Cathedral. In one corner, an altar preserved the 
name and memory of Philippe Auguste's sheltering chapel of 
St. Lawrence. 

Having in those days no protecting walls, the abbey was 
quite open and exposed to the depredations of any chance 
passer-by. From its foundation in 1204, until the Reform 
in 1609, therefore, Port-Royal passed through many phyvSical 
as well as spiritual changes, its history being entirely lost 
during the wars with the English in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries. That reform was very much needed as early as 
the beginning of the sixteenth century, is proved by an existing 
carte-de-visite, or Cartulary — a report made by the Superior 
of the Abbey on his regular visits there. By this card, it 
is apparent that the monastery had no dormitory, and that 
the law of seclusion was not practised, while its recommenda- 
tion of a better recitation of the Prayers to Notre-Dame, the 
patron, also a clock for greater punctuality in the hours of 
Divine service, is significant. The directions with regard to 
dress, confession, etc., all pointed to laxness of moral dis- 
cipline. ^ 

About this time, some slight economic reform in the 
matter of the limits of the monastery was undertaken in turn 
by two Abbesses, aunt and niece respectively, both named 
Jehanne de la Fin. The first Jehanne added the farm on 
the heights above the abbey called Les Granges, and after 
her, Jehanne the second — evidently a lover of beauty — had 
the church repaired, made over the bell tower, and presented 
some very fine sculptured choir stalls. The epitaph of 

1 See Guilbert, Mimoires Historiques et Chyonologiques de Port-Royal, 
i. 187-196. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 25 

this Abbess, a play on her name, was short and to the 
point : 

" La fin couronne Toeuvre." 

A second carte-de-visit e, dated some seventy years later, ^ 
records a still graver moral laxness among the nuns of Port- 
Royal, encouraged by the corruption of the Abbess, Catherine 
de la Vallee. Fortunately, this lady, becoming frightened 
of the dangers entailed during the wars of the League by 
Port-Royal's close proximity to Paris, at last fled to another 
Cistercian convent called Colinance. 

It was under the rule of Catherine de la Vallee's successor, 
La Dame Boulehart, who maintained matters much as she 
had found them, neither better nor worse, that in the last 
year of the sixteenth century an event occurred which brings 
us into touch with our immediate subject. This was the 
nomination as coadjutrice, of a young girl only seven years 
and a half old, destined to be Port-Royal's future Abbess 
and Reformer. 

In those days, the religious life was an easy manner of 
settling the future fate of female members of rich and in- 
fluential families, for on buying an abbey, or installing his 
daughter in a convent or monastery, the father was there- 
after absolved from further care or thought in her regard. 
Thus the monastical profession had become a matter of 
material, not spiritual import, and such institutions showed 
a deplorable moral degeneration. 

La Dame Boulehart 's young coadjutrice belonged to a 
family claiming noble blood, and originating in Auvergne. 
It has been said that the Arnaulds have the distinction of 
characterizing Port-Royal : 

" Port -Royal is the Arnaulds ; the Arnaulds are Port- 
Royal." 

In Catherine de Medecis' time, the head of this important 
clan was M. Antoine Arnauld, like his father before him, 
Procureur- General to the Queen, and a gentleman renowned 
for his fine mind and attainments. Later on, when so many 
descendants of this patriarch became nuns and solitaires at 
Port-Royal, the imputation of Calvinism was cast by enemies 
1 17th September 1572. Ibid. pp. 198-202. 



26 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

on M. Arnauld pere, but this was untrue, he in reality having 
always been a good and most enthusiastic Catholic. 

In a Study on the History of the Ancient French Magistracy} 
he has been described as a 

*' man of the world and a Christian, uniting ambition and 
piety, soliciting at the court offices for his eldest son, at Rome 
abbeys for his daughters, still children. He walked in the 
ways of salvation, without turning aside from those of fortune." 

Selling his office on the death of Catherine de Medecis, 
M. Arnauld devoted himself to the law, and toward the end 
of the sixteenth century became famous by an act facetiously 
termed the " original sin of the Arnaulds." This was a most 
heated and eloquent brief delivered in the University of 
Paris against the Jesuit, Pierre Barriere's attempted murder 
of Henri iv in 1594. With inartistic vehemence, M. Arnauld 
denounced the Jesuits as : 

" Thieves, corruptors of youth, assassins of kings, sworn 
enemies of the State, pests of Republics, and disturbers of 
the public repose." ^ 

Not content with overwhelming the objects of his scorn with 
these epithets, the impassioned orator further denounced 
them as meriting not only to be chased out of Paris, the court, 
and the kingdom, but to be entirely cleared away and exter- 
minated from the face of the earth. 

So intense was the general indignation over this outrage 
attributed to the Jesuits, that Parliament thereupon demanded 
the expulsion of the whole Society from France, and the 
lenient Henri iv was compelled to yield to the moment's 
pressure. That the University believed the gaining of their 
point due to their orator's eloquence, is proved by the fact 
that they made a resolution vowing to him and his posterity 
eternal gratitude.^ 

Such excess of enthusiasm as this celebrated brief dis- 
played, was but characteristic of the judicial oratory of the 
day, when Renaissance learning had turned to pedantry, 
and rhetoric suffered from the universal adoration of the 

1 Sapey, C. A., p. 189. 

2 Plaidoyi de M. Antoine Arnauld, 12 et 13 Juillet, 1694. 

3 In an Act of i8th March 1595. See Guilbert, MSmoives, i. 234. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 27 

antique. Antoine Arnauld was, in fact, much given to inter- 
larding his speeches with classical allusions, owing to a habit 
with which Tallemant des Reaux credits him,i of pasting 
into copy books whole passages from other authors, and 
classifying them for quotation and use. Indeed, he was often 
apt in his pleadings to forget the subject in hand and let 
his mind wander to something quite foreign. The story is 
told that on one occasion, when carrying on a suit against 
a Genovese Huguenot in a case of confiscation, going into 
a long dissertation on the misdeeds of the citizens of Genoa 
against France, flanked by a discussion of Andrea Doria, 
he was finally recalled to the matter in hand by the Genovese 
Huguenot himself. Turning to the other advocates, the 
indignant Italian demanded : 

" Gentlemen, what have the Republic of Genoa and 
Andrea Doria to do with me and my money ? " ^ 

In spite of this inflated rhetoric, these mattresses voiles of 
eloquence, as his son Robert called them, Antoine Arnauld 
was conceded to have been a most perfect advocate, his 
popularity among princesses and the nobility generally being 
unbounded. 

Early in his career he had married the twelve-year-old 
daughter of M. Simon Marion, also an eloquent orator and 
advocate, afterward President des Enquetes,and finally Avocat- 
General. Mile Marion not only brought her husband a 
large dot, in which was included the fine estate of Andilly, 
but she soon exhibited strong character and great influence. 
Later on M. de St. Cyran described her as 

*' a soul truly solid and built upon the rock." ^ 

With such sterling qualities in both father and mother, 
the children of this union could not fail to have been striking 
characters. But of the twenty infants born to M. and Madame 
Arnauld, only ten survived to reach mature age. When 
these ten grew up, however, their maternal grandfather, no 
less ambitious than their father, in the matter of family 
advancement, was anxious to settle them all well in life. 

^ Histofiettes , vol. iv. p. 60. 

2 Ibid. 

^ Letter to Mdre Angelique, 15th March 1641, 



28 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

The eldest, a son Robert, was from the first designed by 
his father for the world. He was well launched in his career 
by two influential uncles, and soon managed to gain such 
considerable reputation for finance as at an early age to be 
made assistant to M. Schomberg, Intendant of Finance. 
Like his father, Robert Arnauld made a happy marriage, 
and his wife, who was the daughter of a celebrated Ambassador 
of Henri iv, brought him the well-known estate of Pomponne. 
On this occasion, too, his father transferring to him the family 
country seat, he was thereafter known as Robert Arnauld 
d'Andilly. Although connected with Port-Royal from his 
early manhood, M. d'Andilly did not definitely retire to the 
monastery until he was fifty-eight years old. For twenty- 
seven years he played the part of link between Port-Royal 
and the outside — a role for which his vast experience of the 
different aspects of life generally, his close alliance with the^ 
Court, made him perfectly fitted. 

The next eldest of M. Arnauld's four sons was the Abbe 
de St. Nicolas, eight years younger than Robert, who eventu- 
ally became Bishop of Angers, and also noted in religious 
circles, though not until the Peace of the Church in connection 
with Port-Royal. 

Six years younger still was the third son, Simon Arnauld, 
the only one who, as Sainte-Beuve says, had not time to 
disengage himself from the world. Simon Arnauld was 
described by his nephew the Abbe Arnauld as 

" born with many good qualities, without any considerable 
vice ; well made in his person, of a very affable and sweet 
humour, agreeable among women, proud when necessary 
among men." ^ 

Lieutenant des Carabins in a cousin's regiment, this dashing 
soldier, in spite of his fine qualities, seems to have been born 
under an unlucky star, for he could never secure advance- 
ment in his profession, and was killed at the age of thirty-six 
in the siege of Verdun. 

Last on the family list, and twenty-four years Robert 
d'Andilly's junior, came the fourth son, Antoine, afterwards 
famous as the Grand Arnauld. The testimony of contem- 
poraries does not show this future doctor of the Sorbonne as 

^ MSmoires, Ed. Petitot, vol. xxxiv. p. i86. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 29 

physically attractive. Apparently he was small, dark, and 
ugly. His nephews called him " le petit oncle," because 
he was younger than the eldest among them, Antoine Le 
Maitre. Mentally, however, he made up for all physical 
imperfections. Sainte-Beuve says he was : 

"One of the most active, original, and characteristic 
persons of his time — a symbol of ardour and candour." ^ 

And what a face his portrait shows ! The brightness of eyes 
illuminate features which betray such sensibility that it is 
hard to recognize in their possessor the rude fighting qualities 
attributed to the " Defender of the Truth." Essentially the 
scholar in his countenance and personality, Antoine Arnauld's 
fate was continual struggle, his life-history during the so- 
called second Port- Royal a tale of exile and hardship. 

The eldest of Antoine Arnauld's six daughters, Catherine, 
had early made what was supposed to be a brilliant marriage. 
Unfortunately, she soon learned that her husband, Isaac 
Le Maitre, King's Councillor and Maitre des Comptes, was 
unworthy in every respect. For seven years she suffered 
in proud silence both his immorality and his cruelty, but 
finally, falling ill, she confessed all to her mother ; and, after 
a great deal of trouble, M. Arnauld succeeded in procuring 
a separation for his daughter. Her five sons, too, he was 
able to save from the control of their father, who, to retain 
his rights to his children, even declared himself to belong 
to the Reformed Religion. Only twenty-six years of age 
at the time of her trouble, Madame Le Maitre devoted herself 
thenceforth solely to the education of her sons, leading a 
most useful and saintly life. Eventually she, too, found a 
refuge at Port-Royal. 

The other five daughters were nuns. The youngest, 
Madeleine-Christine, commonly called " Madelon," was in 
early childhood a stubborn rebel, who, when her sister 
Angelique begged her to become a nun, replied that she 
wished to marry. Angelique prayed fervently for the salva- 
tion of the little one, and behold one night Madelon had a 
vision, in which, appearing before her, her own Sainte-Madeleine 
called her into the desert. Although the family laughed at 
Madelon's instant decision to become a nun, the child per- 
^ Port-Royal, ii. p. 172. 



30 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

sis ted, and finally went to Port-Royal. Always a great 
invalid, Madelon astonished her sisters by her patience under 
continual suffering, endured for forty- two years. 

" Am I not very happy, and has not God shown me much 
grace that I am not a moment without suffering either in 
body or mind ? " she asked. ^ 

The next youngest girl, Marie-Claire, became identified with 
Port-Royal from her seventh year. The story is told that having 
the small-pox at this early age a preservative was administered 
which destroyed her beauty. Herself realizing the change, 
and putting her hand up before the unfamiliar image looking 
at her from the mirror, Marie-Claire would exclaim piteously : 

*' Ah ! ce n'est plus moi ! ce n'est plus moi ! " ^ 

Timid, delicate, but passionate and affectionate, this sister 
clung with steadfast pertinacity to Mere Angelique. Her 
great forte from the beginning was prayer, and because she 
was so zealous in this form of devotion as to be continually 
in the church. Mere Angelique called her 

'' One of the pillars of our choir." 

On the occasion of some celebration when the whole monastery 
had spent the entire day in the chapel, Marie-Claire, who was 
Mistress of the Novices, came to Mere Angelique and asked 
naively what they must do, as the novices 

" had not had time to pray to God, all the day having 
been spent in church." ^ 

Marie-Claire's life was thus a simple history of devotion to 
her God, devotion to her sister. Living to be forty-two, her 
health was so impaired by the hardships encountered during 
a long sojourn at Maubuisson with Mere Angelique, that for 
twenty-two years she confessed to have had fever the whole 
afternoon of every day. When at last this brave nun died, 
she was buried according to an old religious custom the same 
evening, in pious simplicity, without flowers, beautiful linen, 
or illumination. Marie-Claire, it was said, had loved peni- 
tence too well in life not to preserve the marks of it after 
death.* 

1 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. 301. 

a Ibid. p. 2 1 1 . 3 Ibid. * Ibid. p. 2 1 7. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 31 

Six years older, Anne-Eugenie Arnauld was the romantic 
spirit among the sisters. Full of pride and haughtiness, she 
used to spend her days in the park at Andilly, reading novels 
so deeply absorbing in their tales of love and life that oft- 
times, overtaken by a storm, she would let the thunder and 
lightning play upon her unperceived. Taste for the world 
was very strong in this girl of fourteen. Moreover, greatly 
influenced by Calvinistic cousins, she found it difficult to 
decide which faith to choose. Then, suddenly, at nineteen, 
during the climax of an attack of smallpox, she vowed, if 
God would save her, to serve Him thenceforth in the better 
of the two religions. As she knelt one day with her mother 
in the family chapel of St. Lawrence in the church of St. 
Merry, her doubt was resolved, and a great and irrepressible 
desire seized her to become a nun. Remaining a year longer 
in the world as a test of this resolution, in 1616 she finally 
entered Port-Royal, where she voluntarily served in the 
kitchen, performing the most menial tasks, which she said 
gave her 

" more joy and pleasure than she had ever had at the Comedy 
and in the greatest amusements." ^ 

When, two years later, the convent doors closed upon this 
daughter for ever, M. Arnauld, senior, declined to be present 
at the ceremony, alleging that it moved him too greatly. 
Anne-Eugenie, however, was in a state of such exaltation 
that when the day after her profession the nuns were weeping 
Mere Angelique's departure for Maubuisson, she alone re- 
mained tearless : 

" God gave me too many benefits yesterday,'* she said, 
" for me to weep to-day." 

Reminded on her death-bed thirty-seven years afterward of 
the joys she had then experienced, Anne-Eugenie again 
became radiant, repeating verbatim the vows of her pro- 
fession as readily as if made only the week before. ^ 

Though all the Arnaulds were connected more or less 
closely with the monastery, it is through the next two daughters 
that we first approach it, they who were most intimately 
associated with the reform and lifelong history of the whole 

^ Mdmoires et Relations, p. 35. * Ibid. p. 39. 



32 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

movement ; they who represent the finest and most living 
period of Port-Royal's growth and influence. 

The elder, bom in 1591 and called Jacqueline, became 
the celebrated Mere Angelique : Jeanne, two years younger, 
was scarcely less renowned as Mere Agnes de Saint-Paul. 

Though not a thorough materialist, being, on the contrary, 
a zealous churchman of the Galilean type,^ M. Antoine Arnauld 
seemed particularly anxious to settle the future of these 
two daughters. A story is told by the historian Clemencet 
that when in their early childhood the sisters were both told 
by their grandfather that they were to be nuns, the elder, 
of whom M. Marion was particularly fond, replied : 

" My grandfather, since you wish me to be a nun, I wish 
it too, but on condition that I shall be an abbess." 

One day, however, with serious face, she went in search of 
M. Marion, who was in his study. On asking her what she 
wanted, the child replied : 

" My grandfather, I have come to tell you that I do not 
want to be an abbess, for I have heard it said that abbesses 
must render account to God for the souls of their nuns, and 
I have enough to do to care for my own." 

Her sister Jeanne (Agnes), who had followed her, on hearing 
this, broke in, and announced brusquely : 

" I want to be one, grandfather, and I shall take care to 
make them do their duty." 2 

Jacqueline was but seven years of age when, by 
her father's and grandfather's efforts and credit, she was 
made coadjutrice of the Abbey of Port-Royal, under an 
abbess whose age and infirmities gave every reason to believe 
that from coadjutrice the child might soon become Abbess. 
For the younger sister, Jeanne, the Abbey of St. Cj^ was 
obtained. Both girls were so young, however, that before 
taking up these important positions, it was necessary they 
should be instructed in the religious life. After benediction 
at the Abbey of St. Antoine des Champs in Paris, therefore, 
Jacqueline, taking the novice's dress, spent eight months in 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 74. 

* Histoire Ginerale de Port-Royal, i. p. 13. 



PORT-ROYAL AND THE ARNAULDS 33 

her sister's Abbey of St. Cyr. Here, in 1600, Jeanne also 
took the robe of the novice, it being understood that although 
from that time virtually Abbess of St. Cyr, she should not 
fulfil her abbatial duties until she was twenty years old. In 
1600, the girls were separated, Jeanne remaining at St. Cyr, 
Jacqueline being placed in the Cistercian Abbey of 
Maubuisson under Madame Angelique d'Estrees, its Abbess. 

On entering Maubuisson, Jacqueline changed her name 
to Angelique, choosing this appellation not only out of com- 
pliment to Madame d'Estrees, but also in order to conceal 
her true age from the papal authorities. In October, her 
noviciate having expired, she made her profession, remaining 
two years longer at Maubuisson until the Abbess of Port- 
Royal died, when, under the impression that M. Arnauld's 
daughter was seventeen, the Pope confirmed her appoint- 
ment, and Madame Angelique was at once installed at Port- 
Royal des Champs. In reality, the new Abbess was not quite 
eleven years of age.^ 

Thus began the life-history of that great character who 
was to institute an epoch-making reform, and who even 
now, after the lapse of three centuries, stands out as la grande 
Angelique. During seventy years of charity and self-denial, 
this heroine, mother and martyr of the first Port-Royal, 
had full opportunity to test the truth of her own saying : 

" Affliction, pain, and evil are more necessary to us than 
bread." 2 

1 Racine, Abrigi de VHistoire de Port-Royal, p. 2. 

2 Memoir es et Relations y p. 270. 



CHAPTER IV 

UtRE ANGfiLIQUE'S CONVERSION AND THE 
REFORM OF PORT-ROYAL DES CHAMPS 

" No man in this corrupt state of nature can resist Divine Grace operating 
upon the soul." 

One of the Five Propositions said to be contained in the Augustinus 

THERE exists a graphic description of the deplorable 
moral condition of the Abbey when Mere Angelique 
was put in possession. Its thirteen nuns comported 
themselves in the same manner as those of other convents, 
wearing gloves and masques like ladies of fashion, and leading 
lives in which true religion had no part. Their confessor, 
a Bernardine monk, was so ignorant that he did not under- 
stand the meaning of the Pater he mumbled out ; the Cate- 
chism was unintelligible to him, and the only book he ever 
opened was his Breviary. Instead of taking his exercise in 
solitary walks of religious meditation, he openly delighted 
in the carnal pleasure of the hunt. Other Bernardine monks 
who visited the Abbey from time to time entertained the 
nuns by telling them of the amusements at other abbeys — 
distractions which they called " les bonnes coutumes de 
rOrdre." ^ 

Preaching, too, had gone out of fashion, and for thirty 
years the only sermons delivered had been on the occasion 
of seven or eight professions. Moreover, both nuns and 
confessor had so little respect for the Sacrament of the Holy 

1 " La rdgle de St. Benoit n'y etait presque plus connue, et I'esprit du 
siecle en avait entidrement banni la regularite. Onze religieuses dont trois 
6taient imbeciles et deux novices composaient toute la maison, lorsque la 
Mdre Angelique Arnauld succeda a Jeanne de Boulehart " (Clemencet, 
i. p. II)- 

34 







MERE ANGELIQUE, ABBESS AND REFORMER OF PORT ROYAL 

FROM VAN SCHUPPEN's ENGRAVING OF THE PORTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE 



MfeRE ANG^LIQUE'S CONVERSION 35 

Eucharist that it had come to be administered but once a 
month, or on the great festivals of the Chiuch, and then 
perfunctorily and hastily. The Feast of the Purification had 
been struck off the list of celebrations altogether, owing to 
the exigencies of carnival time, when confessors, servants, 
and nuns alike were occupied in preparations forjmasquerades 
and other merry-makings. ^ 

Fearful for Mere Angelique's youth and inexperience, the 
Arnauld family kept strict watch over her Abbey and its 
inmates. But nothing occurred to disturb their peace of 
mind. Although the young Abbess joined in the frivolous 
habits of her nuns to a great extent, for five years time passed 
uneventfully for her. Gradually, however, Madame de Port- 
Royal grew to have a great distaste and even dislike for her 
vocation. Unhappy, restless, and discontented, instead of 
seeking consolation and help in prayer, she turned for 
distraction to such profane books as Plutarch's Lives, 
and similar ungodly works. At fifteen, indeed, she con- 
ceived the serious idea of leaving Port-Royal. As she 
expressed it : 

" I deliberated in myself to leave Port -Royal and to 
return to the world without warning my father and my mother, 
in order to withdraw myself from the yoke which was un- 
endurable to me, and to marry." ^ 

She went so far as to think of throwing herself on the pro- 
tection of some Huguenot relations at La Rochelle. This 
resolution was frustrated seemingly by the hand of God, 
for on the eve of its execution the rebellious Ang^lique was 
stricken down with a terrible fever. At once her father 
carried her off to Andilly to recover, and here during her 
illness she was visited by different members of her family, 
notably two magnificent aunts, who, approaching her bed in 
their rustling gowns of satin and velvet, awakened in their 
sequestered niece a latent desire for finery.^ 

On convalescence, however, she returned to the monastery 
in a more resigned frame of mind, and suddenly the miraculous 
happened — that unexpected, unforeseen trifle which in reality 
changed the whole current of existence, rendering the inex- 

^ PouUain, Histoire AbrSgi de Port-Royal, p. 4. 

« M^moires et Relations, p. 125, ,- ^ /jj^, p, 126. 



36 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

perienced girl a matured spirit, rich in piety, firm in purpose, 
strong to reform herself and those about her. 

This miracle was nothing less than the descent upon her 
head of what the Jansenists called " God's Sovereign, Infallible 
Grace," the medium of its appearance only a poor monk 
called Pere Basile, in reality a notoriously corrupt priest of 
immoral influence. Knocking at the gate of Port-Royal one 
night, this travelling Capuchin asked if he might preach 
there. Although it was late, the young Abbess consented, 
rather glad to welcome any change in the monotony of her life. 

The Capuchin's subject dealt with the benefits of the 
religious profession, the Rule of St. Benoit, and the different 
abject humiliations suffered by the child Christ in the cradle. 
It is doubtful if Mere Angelique heard or understood his 
words, and yet during this sermon, preached ^ in the dim 
torchlight of the chapel, she was suddenly transformed from 
a nun tired of her vocation into a religious enthusiast. The 
Divine Fire had touched her, and albeit months of anguish and 
struggle lay before her, her Renaissance and that of Port-Royal 
were determined that night. And thus, in 1609, two years 
before the meeting of those illustrious Churchmen anxious to 
find a remedy for degeneration in the Church, the seventeen- 
year-old Abbess of Port-Royal des Champs had begun in her 
ancient Cistercian monastery the reform which was afterward 
to respond to the ideas of the two students, Jansenius and 
St. Cyran, at that time only just becoming acquainted in 
Louvain. 

The sincere Reformer was too astute to at once attempt 
the siege of that greatest citadel of the human heart — personal 
vanity, a sin deep-rooted in the Port-Royal nuns. Herself 
dressing in coarse serge, she refrained from demanding of these 
ladies of high birth and position, as elegant and worldly as any 
of the grandes dames of the Court, to give up their costly robes 
cut in the extreme of the prevailing fashion, their long sleeves, 
etc., but accomplished her desire gradually through general ex- 
hortation and the force of her own example. Within five years 
the struggle was won, and the strictest vows of the Rule of 
St. Benoit literally carried out : poverty, silence, fasting, 
abstinence from meat, watching at night, and lastly seclusion. ^ 

» In Lent 1608. 

^ Racine, Ahr^gi de I'Histoire de Port-Royal (Edition Gazier), p. 4. 



MfeRE ANGfiLIQUE'S CONVERSION 37 

It was in the fulfilment of this latter vow that the courageous 
Superior had her greatest and most decisive battle. Through 
it she came into collision with her family, notably her father, 
the redoubtable Antoine Arnauld, who now held the high 
position of Avocat-General of France, having succeeded his 
father-in-law, M. Marion. Necessarily somewhat of an auto- 
crat at home, M. Arnauld was so feared by his daughters, 
and even by his wife, that they either neglected or were 
afraid to tell him of Mere Angelique's determination to 
enforce her vow of seclusion to the point of refusing to 
admit her mother, sisters, and — horrible to relate — him who 
had not only given her her Abbey, but had been constant 
in his favours to the whole community. It was therefore 
quite without warning that he suddenly found himself pitted 
against the firm piety of his daughter. 

One day in September 1609, Mere Angelique awaited a visit 
from her parents, and the nuns were all in the refectory at an 
early dinner, when they heard a carriage drive into the exterior 
courtyard. In this vehicle were five persons : M. and Madame 
Arnauld, M. d'Andilly, Madame Le Maitre, and Anne-Eugenie. 
Matters had been previously arranged inside the convent : 
doors locked, keys removed, etc., and on the first warning 
noise of the wheels. Mere Angelique, who had been praying 
alone in the church, advanced to the cloister gate, upon 
which M. Arnauld was already knocking. 

Opening the wicket, she refused her father entrance into 
the inner precincts, begging him to step into the ante-room 
adjoining, where she could talk with him through the grating, 
and explain her reasons for not admitting him. Having always 
considered himself in the light of a benefactor to the whole 
community, M. Arnauld grew mad with rage at this unheard- 
of conduct on the part of his daughter, and a fearful scene 
ensued, in which some of the religieuses took part against 
their Abbess. 

To give the result in epitome, the outcome of the famous 
Journee du Guichet (Wicket Day), as it was called, was 
victory for firmness of conscience as represented by 
M6re Angelique, and of capitulation on the side of tender 
authority, incorporated in the persons of a family conquered 
by the sight of their poor enthusiast suffering human exhaus- 
tion from the violence she herself put upon strong natural 



38 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

emotions. A compromise was made, whereby the family, 
with the sanction of the Abbefdes Citeaux, Director of the 
monastery, were thenceforth allowed to enter any part of 
the Abbey, except the cloister. 

It was not long after the reform of Port-Royal that the 
force of Mere Angelique's life and example had attracted to 
the Abbey many other Abbesses from all parts of the country, 
some staying years at Port-Royal in order to learn the holy 
maxims taught there. Gradually the General of the Order 
grew into the habit of sending Mere Angelique and her nuns 
to other Cistercian institutions which needed reform.^ The 
worst of these Abbeys to which Mere Angelique went per- 
sonally, was that in which she herself had been trained — 
Maubuisson. No other than the sister of the beautiful 
Gabrielle d'Estrees, the Abbess of this monastery had long 
been setting an example of riotous living to her nuns, and 
when her patron Henri iv died, the General of the Order 
at once had her removed and taken to the Convent of the 
Filles Penitentes in Paris. The history of her various escapes 
from prison, of the long years spent in fruitless attempts to 
regain the Abbey, of money being squandered to that end ; 
until at last she died in misery and loneliness — all would be 
a novel in itself. Mere Angelique's experiences at Maubuisson, 
too, were startling, and richly justified her fears on starting 
out, when she had told her nuns that the going was a question 
of sacrificing not only health but life itself. Still, she was 
not affrighted, so, leaving Mere Agnes behind as Sous Prieure 
and head of the monastery during her absence, she set out, 
taking with her two or three of her own nuns — among them 
her young sister, Marie-Claire. Unfortunately, she had 
scarcely been there a year, when, making a most dramatic 
escape from the Filles Penitentes, Madame d'Estrees, accom- 
panied by powerful cavaliers of the Court, returned to her 
former Abbey and forced an entrance. Although in a few 
days she was again seized and conducted back to the Filles 
Penitentes, the venom of Madame d'Estrees was not exhausted; 
many times afterwards she managed to escape her gaolers, 
and with her friends so menaced the peace of the Abbey, 
that for months Mere Angelique was obliged to keep a guard 
of a hundred archers to protect the Abbey from assault. 

_^ ^ Racine, AbrSgS, p. 5. 



MERE ANGfiLIQUE'S CONVERSION 39 

One of the happy results of the Maubuisson sojourn was 
a relationship formed with St. Fran9ois de Sales, that most 
famous example in all the annals of the Church for sweetness 
and tenderness of heart. Happening to be in France for a 
short time in 1619, and hearing of the courageous reformer 
of Maubuisson, St. Fran9ois visited the Abbey for the express 
purpose of making her acquaintance. So impressed was 
Mere Angelique with the gentle priest during the first inter- 
view that she begged him to act as Director to herself and 
the nuns under her charge. Until meeting him, she admitted, 
she had never found the unique mentor she was in search 
of, but had been obliged to gather counsel here and 
there. 

'' Ah ! " said St. Franpois, " why trouble about that ? 
Surely there is no harm in seeking on several flowers the 
honey one fails to find on one only." 

" I admired his advice," confessed Mere Angelique, " although 
I should have found it dangerous to follow it." ^ 

In her Memoir es, Mere Angelique confesses that if St. 
Francois had remained in France she would have gained a 
great deal from his counsels, which were, she said, not so 
soft and sweet as most people imagined. An insight into 
human nature and a tremendous tact made St. Frangois 
appear lenient to the outside world, but to those, like Mere 
Angelique, in whom he had confidence, he was sternness 
itself, pardoning nothing in souls vowed to the truth. 

" He returned to his diocese," wrote Mere Angelique, '' and 
I remained three years longer in that house (Maubuisson). . . . 
As long as he lived, I continued to write him of my plans, 
and he took the trouble to reply to me with great care and 
extreme kindness." 2 

Thus Sainte-Beuve calls the whole first epoch of Port- 
Royal after its reform the " Period of St. Francois de Sales," 
describing the spirit of the author of U Amour de Dieu and 
L' Introduction d la Vie devote as 

" affectionate, sweet, amorous, and expansive." 

That all her life Mere Angelique revered St. Frangois, is 

^ Mdmoires et Relations, p. 53. ^ Ibid. p. 55. 



40 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

proved by the letter she wrote on her death-bed to Anne 
of Austria : 

" It was this holy prelate, Madame," she said, " who knew 
better than any other the depths of my heart, and from whom 
I tried to learn the veritable spirit with which one should 
inspire souls who leave the world to consecrate themselves to 
God." 

On his part, St. Fran9ois basked in the happiness of giving 
out so much to these yearning souls, and to him Port-Royal 
became, as he expressed it, his " cheres delices." ^ 

1 Du Fosse, M&moires, ii. p. 74. 



CHAPTER V 

MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN— FOUNDATION OF 
PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS 

" II brule d'arroser cet arbre precieux (la Croix) 
Ou pend pour nous le fruit le plus cheri des Cieux." 

CORNEILLE 

MERE ANGfiLIQUE was still at Maubuisson when Fate 
struck the fore-note of the event which was to be 
of great moment to both her and Port-Royal. 
In 1620, accompanying the Court on an official errand (he 
was then Assistant to the Intendant of Finances, M. Schom- 
berg) southward, Robert d'Andilly met at Poitiers the Abbe 
de St. C5n:an. Being of an extremely individualistic nature, 
this eldest Arnauld had always seemed to experience a 
necessity for continually giving out affection, and, like the 
true enthusiast he was, it was generally his last fancy which 
most engrossed him.^ And now, for some reason or other, 
his inflammable sympathy at once rushed out toward the 
learned Abbe, then thirty-seven years old, and seven years 
older than himself, and in the first flush of his enthusiasm 
he unknowingly performed a great service to Jansenism by 
introducing St. Cyran to his sister. Mere Angelique. The 
latter must have been immediately attracted by the per- 
sonality of her new acquaintance, for, in a letter written 
shortly afterward, she thanked her brother for having given 
her "the happiness of so holy a friendship." But when, in 

^ The Abbe Arnauld, eldest son of Robert, ^vrote rather bitterly of this 
peculiarity of his father's, saying that although he loved his friends extremely, 
new friendships had preference over old. "It is easy to judge by this," he 
continued, " that his children were not what he most loved " [MSmoireSt 
Petitot, p. 123). 



42 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

1621, St. Cyran visited Port-Royal des Champs for the first 
time, it was not to see the Abbess, but his old friend, her 
mother, Madame Arnauld. 

After M^re Ang61ique had been some four years at 
Maubuisson, Louis xiii appointed Madame de Soissons, 
natural sister of the first Duchesse de Longueville, its new 
Abbess. This appointment pleased M^re Angelique, who 
was most anxious to return to her beloved Port-Royal. But 
as the papers of Madame de Soissons were very long in arriving, 
for thirteen months still departure was impossible. 

Meanwhile, some slight misunderstanding had arisen be- 
tween Madame de Soissons and M^re Angelique with regard 
to the latter's accepting so many poor girls without dowry 
into Maubuisson, and this criticism was repeated in many 
quarters. 

" I reply to this complaint," wrote Mere Angelique, " that 
if a house with an income of thirty thousand livres is con- 
sidered to be burdened with thirty nuns, I would not esteem 
ours, which has only six thousand livres, incommoded in 
receiving them.'* ^ 

Full of divine charity and compassion. Mere Angelique then 
appealed to Mere Agnes at Port-Royal, asking if she and the 
nuns there would have the courage to share their poverty 
with the thirty women for whom she felt herself responsible. 
On receiving a characteristic repty to the effect that the good 
sisters would embrace such a test with joy and gladness, 
M^re Angelique at once applied to the General of the Order 
for permission to return to Port-Royal with her protegees. 
Upon receiving his consent, she then wrote to her mother, 
Madame Arnauld, begging her to send carriages to transport 
her charges from Maubuisson to Port-Royal des Champs. 

Finding it imperative that she should spend a few days 
in Paris before returning to Port-Royal, the good Angelique 
determined to send the others on in advance. But, she 
thought, if these strangers go to the monastery without me, 
their talk and chatter will create disturbance and undue 
excitement. She therefore laid a vow of silence, from which 
they were to be absolved only by her presence, upon the nuns, 

* Guilbert, MSmoires Historiques et Chronologiques, ii. 155 ; also MSmoires 
et Relations, p. 36. 



MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 43 

and, pinning a card on the sleeve of each telling its owner's 
name, she let them go. 

Thus " thirty mutes " arrived one day at Port-Royal, 
and it was not until a week later that Mere Angelique, re- 
turning with joy after a five years' absence to her long-regretted 
home, gave them back the gift of speech. ^ 

St. Cyran's first real interest in Mere Angelique dates 
from the episode of the return to Port-Royal des Champs, for he 
happened to be calling for a second time on Madame Arnauld 
the day she received the letter from M^re Ang61ique asking 
her mother to send carriages to Maubuisson. Hearing Madame 
Arnauld read the account of these nuns, and M^re Ang^lique's 
goodness to them, 

" From that time," says M^e Angelique, '' God gave him 
Charity for me." * 

His first letter to her, dated 4th July 1623, was written to 
express his delight at her treatment of the Maubuisson nuns. 

In this epistle he expressed his famous views on Charity, 
which he considered should be practised in the same spirit in 
which the mart5^s of the Church had in olden times died for 
their faith .^ 

But alas ! M^re Angelique's " mutes " had hardly grown 
accustomed to their new home before it was found that the 
capacities of the old Abbey were being greatly overstrained. 
Intended as a foundation for only twelve nuns, eighty were 
lodged there at this time. And, in addition to the discomfort 
induced by this overcrowding, in the valley of the river 
Yvette there raged continually a pestilential humidity, in 
consequence of which many of the nuns fell ill of different 
kinds of malarial fevers, until finally the whole monastery 
seemed a huge infirmary.* When in two years fifteen nuns 
actually died, the danger of remaining in such a place became 
so apparent, that, after appealing to both the head of the 
Cistercian Order, the Archbishop, and the King, to transfer 
the institution to Paris, M^re Angelique at last took matters 

^ Their constant prayer during this week of silence was : " Mettez, Seigneur, 
une sentinelle a ma bouche, et une garde d la porte de mes Idvres" (Guilbert, 
MSmoires, p. 163). 

2 Mimoires et Relations, p. 75. * Lettres Chrestiennes. 

* Mimoires et Relations, p. 58. 



44 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

into her own hands, and prepared to flee with the remainder 
of her flock. In this endeavour she was aided by her mother, 
who, become a widow on the death of Antoine Arnauld in 
1619, had joined the nuns at Port-Royal, and now offered to 
furnish funds for the purchase of a new Paris home. 

Accordingly, in 1625, Madame Arnauld expended 24,000 
livres in the purchase in the St. Jacques Quarter of the 
Hotel de Clagny, which M^re Angelique had selected for her 
purpose, and the first year eighteen of the nuns were trans- 
ferred to Paris. The next year, the remainder of the com- 
munity followed, leaving only a chaplain at Port-Royal des 
Champs to attend to the services in the church. In deference 
to the mother institution, the new home was called Port-Royal 
de Paris. 

The old Hotel de Clagny lent itself marvellously to the 
uses of a convent, for by very small manoeuvring a large 
gallery became a dormitory ; clever magic of partitioning 
made of the attics cells for the nuns ; while a spacious salon 
was easily converted into a chapel.^ The beautiful grounds 
surrounding the mansion also came into use as promenades 
for the nuns, those at the back being transformed into kitchen 
gardens, whose product of fruit and vegetables the convent 
was soon able to sell. 

Like the parent monastery, Port-Royal de Paris formed a 
square with a large meadow in the centre. The entrance 
door opened on to the Rue de la Bourbe of those days, now 
the Boulevard de Port-Royal. On the north and east were 
large courts. Out of one of these a little exterior staircase 
led to the parloirs, rooms of such size that the whole community 
could assemble in them at one time. The entrance to the 
cloister was in the tower at one end of the Rue de la Bourbe, 
and from it the first story was reached by wooden staircases. 
The kitchens and refectory led off from the south gallery. 

Mere Angelique's reputation attracted the interest of 
many influential persons toward the new monastery, and 
gained for it the patronaage of no less a personage than Marie 
de Medecis, who signified her gracious intention of becoming 
its founder and benefactor. ^ 

It was with the transference of her nuns to Paris that Mere 
Angelique came under the influence of a new Director — a man 

1 Racine, ^fty^g^, p. 13. ^ Ibid. 



MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 45 

of very different stamp from the famous apostle of Love and 
Charity, St. Francois. This was a son of Sebastien Zamet, the 
Italian banker and Henri iv's minister of pleasure. Former 
almoner to Marie de Medecis, and now the Bishop of Langres, 
M. Zamet was of much importance in the ecclesiastical world 
of the moment. As his salient characteristics were, however, 
vanity, caprice, and love of pomp, after the benign and ele- 
vating rule of St. Frangois de Sales his artificial methods were a 
descent in the moral scale, the period of his influence a distinct 
decadence for Port-Roycd.^ In any case, trouble was not slow 
in attacking the monastery. In the first place, aside from the 
cost of the house itself, the removal of the community to Paris 
having been a very expensive affair, Port-Royal found itself in 
debt. In the next, it was embarrassed by ecclesiastical quarrels. 
And thus it was not long before the old peaceful atmosphere 
of the country was entirely gone. 

Sainte-Beuve attributes the degeneration of Port-Royal 
de Paris to one of its outside devotees, Madame de Pontcarre.^ 
When this lady, under a cloud as separated from her husband, 
was first introduced at Port-Royal, she was humility itself, 
desirous onJy of obtaining a modest niche in some corner of 
the holy place. Little by little, however, her demeanour 
changed, and, assuming the dignity of a benefactress, out of 
a large gallery above the parloirs allotted to her she con- 
structed a drawing-room, a tower, and an oratory painted in 
cameo, as well as a roomy cabinet or study. She had also a 
terrace made in front of her windows, and placed upon it a 
quantity of orange trees in boxes. These trees the poor nuns 
were obliged to keep watered, bringing up eighteen to twenty 
pails of water each day.^ 

Then, not content with revolutionizing her own part of 
the monastery, she insisted on the rebuilding of the entire 
place. Herself donating a sum of 24,000 livres — which after 
all hardly paid for more than the foundation — and laying 
the comer-stone, she encouraged and even commanded the 
subsequent ruinous expenditure. 

* Sainte-Beuve says that the only service rendered Mdre Ang61ique by 
M. Zamet was that of dissuading her from a plan she had of leaving Port- 
Royal and entering the Visitation {Port-Royal, i. p. 323). 

2 Ibid. 325. 

3 Guilbert, M^moires Historiques et Chronologiques, ii. p. 341, 



46 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

M. Zamet was particularly pleased with this devote of the 
Orange Trees, who also played the lute very beautifully, and 
soon he became accustomed to spend many hours listening 
to her music. On her part, in charming the ears of Port- 
Royal's susceptible Director, Madame de Pontcarre feigned 
to be accomplishing a religious duty. It is a question 
how far her self-sacrifices went in the final day of reckoning 
toward balancing the weight laid to her door of Port-Royal's 
degeneration. For although the seeds of evil then planted 
remained hidden from view during the twenty years which 
followed the foundation of Port-Royal de Paris, they were ever 
there, waiting such time as, the strong souls having departed, 
they could blossom out into dire destruction. 

Feeling that ecclesiastical disputes at least would be 
bettered by severing her Cistercian dependence, M^re Angelique 
applied to Rome for a change of jurisdiction, and in 1627 the 
Abbey passed under the rule of the " Ordinary " — that is 
to say, under that of M. de Gondi, Archbishop of Paris, the 
uncle and predecessor of Cardinal de Retz, who was later to 
have so great a hand in the affairs of the Jansenists. It 
happened that as just at this time Louis xiii and Richelieu 
were busily engaged besieging the seat of the Huguenots, La 
Rochelle, the Queen Mother was pleased to pay a visit to 
her protege, Port-Royal de Paris. On leaving after a few days, 
turning to Mere Angelique, Marie de Medecis said graciously : 

" Have you nothing to ask of me ? When I enter a 
convent for the first time, I accord whatever is demanded 
of me." 1 

With singular disregard of this carte-blanche, which most people 
would have improved to beg for rich benefits, the only favour 
M^re Angelique craved was that the King on his return might 
make her Abbey elective. This request was granted, and 
on the first triennial election which followed, both Mere 
Angelique and her sister resigned their positions of Abbess 
and Coadjutrice, others being elected in their stead. ^ Mere 
Agn^s was at once sent by M. Zamet to the Abbey of Tard — 
where shortly afterward she became Abbess — ^while in the 
same year (1630), at the request of the Archbishop of Paris, 
Mere Angelique was appointed Superior of a new and most 

^ Guilbert, M^moires, ii. p. 329. * Racine, Abr^gi, p. 14. 



MEETING WITH ST. CYRAN 47 

aristocratic institution called St. Sacrement, situated in the 
Rue Coquilliere near the Louvre. 

The spirit and meaning of St. Sacrement was adapted to 
its aristocratic neighbourhood : 

** In the church, perfumes, starched linen, and bouquets 
. . . with all this, extraordinary austerities : fasting on bread 
and water, terrible discipline, the most humiliating penitence 
in the world." ^ 

But it was unfortunate in having three rival Bishops as 
Directors : the Archbishop of Paris, M. de Gondi ; the Arch- 
bishop of Sens, M. de Bellegarde ; and M. Zamet, Bishop of 
Langres. As from the first these gentlemen found it impossible 
to agree among themselves, disputes, jealousy, and ill-will 
soon coloured luridly the mixture of worldliness, mysticism, 
and austerity of discipline at St. Sacrement. 

Mere Angelique could not help being much affected by this 
atmosphere, and the time seemed to have come with her for 
some radical change of a spiritual nature — for that third and 
last operation of Divine Grace, which was to bring her under 
the influence of the perfect Director she had sought so long. 
Two such awakenings she had already had : the first during the 
sermon of the Capuchin ; the second, a sermon she had heard 
on All Saints' Day the same year, when a Bernardine monk 
had preached on the Eighth Beatitude : " Blessed are those 
who suffer persecution for the sake of Justice " ; and now the 
third and last operation of God's favour was seemingly 
brought about by the innocent means of her younger sister, 
Mere Agnes, far away in the Abbey of Tard. 

1 MSmoires et Relations, p. 70. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 

" Et vous, qui vous plaisez aux folles passions, 

Fuyez de mes plaisirs la sainte austerite ; 
Tout respire ici Dieu, la paix, la verite." 

Esther 

SOME six years before Mere Agnes left Port-Royal de 
Paris for Tard, she had, in the exaltation of her pious 
soul, and imbued by Mere Angelique's ideas of devotion, 
written and circulated among her sister nuns at Port-Royal 
a booklet of only three or four pages, intended for the use of 
the monastery alone. A copy of this mystical meditation, called 
Le Chapelet Secret, coming under the notice of M. Zamet, he had 
greatly approved and was loud in its praise. On hearing that 
M. Zamet sanctioned the Chapelet, however, the Archbishop of 
Sens, at whose instigation it had originally been written, and 
who at first had found it attractive and harmless, changed 
his mind, and secretly having a copy made, sent it to the Sor- 
bonne. Some of the learned doctors there censured it strongly, 
whereupon it was forwarded still further afield — to Rome itself. 
Here it was not considered heretical, but on grounds of policy 
suppressed. ^ Finally the Chapelet Secret became so noised abroad 
that all Paris was aroused over the matter, even the Court 
taking part in the discussion as to its merits or demerits, some 
being for, others against, until, behold, a veritable tempest raged. ^ 
In this crisis, Mere Angelique turned to St. CyxdiXi, and 
asked his opinion of the book. Although much occupied at 
the moment, St. Cyran put everything aside and gave himself 
up to a careful examination of the disputed pamphlet. A 
transcendental meditation on the Holy Eucharist, written 

1 Racine, AhrigS, pp. 18-19. ^ Sainte-Beuve, i, p. 330. 

48 



THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 49 

under the spell of an enthusiasm of devotion, the purpose of 
these three or four pages was that of fathoming one by one 
the virtues of Jesus Christ.^ To this end, they were divided 
into sixteen points in honour of the sixteen centuries which 
had passed since the birth of the Saviour, and separately 
analysed and glorified His different attributes, such as Saint- 
liness, Truth, Sufficiency, Reign, Possession, Illumination, 
etc. etc. In a moment of mystical separation, the author, 
like Tennyson's St. Agnes, had seen the same vision as her 
sainted prototype : there, distinct and clear before the eyes 
of her soul, the spiritual wonders of the heavens had 
unfolded ; the gates had rolled back, and, behold, the 
Heavenly Bridegroom seemed to stand far within, waiting 
to make her " pure of sin." 

Surely there was nothing heretical in these imaginings of a 
devout nun, far aloof from the world and its prosaic common 
sense, and the controversy aroused was ludicrous, being 
nothing more or less than the excuse for an inevitable 
quarrel. Reading the Chapelet Secret again and again, 
St. Cyran professed himself unable to see anything in 
it " against Catholic Truth," 2 and publicly took up its 
defence. 

The first result of this championship of the Chapelet was to 
secure to St. Cyran the warm devotion of M. Zamet, who him- 
self introduced the Abbe — now fifty-two years of age, and 
living in the cloister of Notre-Dame — into the Convent of 
Saint-Sacrement, at first as friend, then as Confessor, regulat- 
ing his own affairs as well after the advice of St. Cyran.^ All 
went smoothly thereafter until M. Zamet's presence being 
required in his diocese of Langres, he left Paris for a short 
space. During his absence, the new Confessor's offices were 
called more than ever into requisition, and when the Bishop 
returned to Paris he was surprised to find what a hold the 
Abbe had obtained over both the nuns and Mother Superior 
of Saint-Sacrement. At once his former liking for St. Cyran 
was turned into fierce jealousy, and although at the first hint 
of this feeling St. Cyran retired from Saint-Sacrement — 
leaving M. Singlin, a man who was later to be one of the 
great powers at Port-Royal, Confessor in his place — such a 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 330. 2 Mimoires et Relations, p. 77. 

' Racine, Abr^gi, p. 20. 

4 



50 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

measure only served to show how firmly rooted St. C3Tan's 
influence had become. 

For Mere Angelique, a true Amauld, whose three salient 
family characteristics of solidity, tenacity, and holiness were 
opposed in essence to the tender-lenient side of Christianity, 
there was certain, sooner or later, to be a rebound from love 
bordering on mysticism, pantheism, and exaltation, to austerity 
and sacrifice. Moreover, by nature, she was sympathetic with 
St. Cyran's idea of the Stern Judge as the predominant side 
of the picture of religion, as also with his ideal of Love akin 
to that of St. Augustine. Like his model, the sincere priest 
believed that in the world were 

" two forms of love : the love of God, which means self- 
denial ; and the love of self, the denial of God." 

Unconsciously, too, the thirteen years of her knowledge of 
St. Cyran — his personality, strong views, and virile Christianity 
— had been making their indelible impression upon Mere 
Angelique. During this time, his renown had been growing 
in ecclesiastical circles,^ and tales of his piety, erudition, 
and force were current everjrwhere. It was also strongly 
rumoured that a series of remarkable articles signed " Petrus 
Aurelius," and dealing with Church practice and discipline, 
which were creating a great excitement in the religious world, 
were from his pen. Then, too, he was known to be the par- 
ticular friend of Pere Berulle, founder of the Oratory, as well 
as of M. de Condren, having rendered friendly services to 
each. Through M. de Berulle he had become acquainted with 
Vincent de Paul, and was enabled to do the Head of the 
Missionaries a good office with regard to a religious house 
he was establishing. Fruthermore, the Archbishop of Paris 
treated the learned Abbe with profound consideration, and 
in the days when he himself was only Bishop of Lugon, 
Richelieu had received such an impression of St. Cyran's 
erudition and piety that he contemplated appointing him 
almoner to the household of Queen Henrietta, then only 

^ Racine quotes the opinion of M. de Laval, Bishop of La Rochelle, who 
said of St. Cyran : " This learned man had no other sentiments than those 
he had drawn from the Holy Bible and the tradition of the Church. He spoke 
no other language than that of the Word of God ; and far from conducting 
souls by particular and abstract ways, he knew not how to lead them to God 
by any other road than that of penitence and charity" {AbrigS, p. 21). 




THE ABBE DE ST. CYRAN 

FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNI 



THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 51 

recently married to Charles i of England.^ One day, as 
after an audience the great Cardinal was himself recon- 
ducting the Abbe through the anterooms, touching his visitor 
on the shoulder, Richelieu said to the courtiers standing 
about : 

" Messieurs, vous voyez la le plus savant homme de 
I'Europe." 2 

Thus the matter of the Chapelet Secret was only the last 
trifle which precipitated Mere Angelique into the new path. 
Once having realized that St. Cyran's was the Rule needed 
for her and for Port- Royal, her capitulation was complete. 
In him at last she felt that she had recovered an ideal of the 
spirit of true religion and piety vainly sought ever since the 
first miracle had descended upon her soul twenty-seven years 
before through the medium of the unworthy Capuchin monk. 

In her own words, she confessed that once having van- 
quished her repugnance to confess to St. Cyran : 

" I remained so satisfied and content that I seemed to be 
another creature, and although God made me feel the pain 
of my sins, I may say that I had never had such real and 
sensible consolation in all my life, and that I had never had 
so much pleasure in diverting myself, and in laughing when 
formerly I would have wept. All our sisters, with the exception 
of two, were in the same disposition." ^ 

Seeing that his efforts to dislodge the new Confessor were 
useless, and that in spite of all he could do Mere Angelique stood 
firm in her adherence to St. Cjnran, M. Zamet now became so 
venomous that it soon was necessary to debar him any in- 
fluence in, and finally even entrance to, the monastery.* Upon 
which, the jealous Bishop created such a disturbance that 
Mere Angelique determined to give up Saint-Sacrement. 
Accordingly, she quickly made arrangements, and in 1636 went 
back to Port-Royal de Paris, whither many of the nuns followed. 

But this move did not kill the controversy — it pursued 
Mere Angelique to Port-Royal de Paris, and there waxed 
stronger than ever. 

The convent was at first much divided in its feeling with 
regard to the quarrel : some nuns were for, others against, 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 307. ' Lancelot, Memotres, i. p. $9. 

' Mimoires et Relations, p. 121. * Ibid. p. 121. 



52 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

the idea of changing from M. Zamet to St. Cyran. Even 
Mere Agnes, just returned from Tard, found it difficult to 
assign her fealty to one who was represented to her as a 
usurper. Little by little, however, seeing for herself the 
power of the man who had championed her Chapelet,^ she was 
won over. 

Of her sister nuns, none held more stubbornly to St. Cyran's 
predecessor than Marie-Claire. From the first much im- 
pressed by M. Zamet, this young and enthusiastic Arnauld 
had blindly obeyed the Bishop of Langres, even to the point 
of refusing to speak for several years to her beloved sister 
Mere Angelique, because, seeing her excess of devotion, 
M. Zamet had carelessly remarked that it would be better, 
perhaps, if she never spoke to her again. 

Absent for five years at Tard, on returning to Port-Royal 
during the conflict of Directors, Marie-Claire had thus taken 
violent partisanship for M. Zamet. For fourteen months, 
nothing could move her from this standpoint. At last, 
becoming convinced of St. Cyran's saintliness and her own 
unworthiness in having resisted his influence, she sent a very 
penitent letter to the Abbe, putting herself absolutely in 
his hands : 

'* Ah," she wrote in deepest humility, " I know that God 
can save me ; but what obligation has He to do this miracle ? 
I adore the sentence which He shall pass upon me with 
trembling and with tranquillity." ^ 

That for six months after this letter St. Cyran refused 
to see Marie-Claire, seemed incomprehensible, until he himself 
explained it as based on the principle of offering up a living 
sacrifice to Repentance : 

" That is why," he wrote Marie-Claire, " I have let you 
wait so long. It was to allow you to live. For five months 
you have lived the spiritual life." ^ 

And then, when one day he felt " obliged," as he confessed, 
to see his young penitent, he began to rid her of everything 

^ " I have seen M. de St. Cyran," she wrote, " and I believe I may 
say, without making any confession, that no man ever spoke as this man " 
{Mimoires et Relations, p. 98). 

' Cl^mencet, Port-Royal, ii. p. 19. ' Ibid. p. 23. 



THE RULE OF ST. CYRAN BEGUN 53 

artificial, forbidding her even the consolation of tears, saying 
that he wished no sorrow which overflowed into the senses. 

" Beware of tears ! " he exclaimed. " I want no mommeries, 
no sighs, no gestures, but a silence of the mind, which interdicts 
all movement." ^ 

Sister Anne-Eugenie was also devoted to M. Zamet, but 
St. Francois de Sales had been her greatest helper, having 
comforted and strengthened her in her spiritual life, where 
at every turn she had to combat dominant faults of pride 
and haughtiness. When at last she too surrendered to M. 
de St. Cyran, the latter, knowing that she most loved prayer 
and solitude, began his discipline by appointing her to a task 
repugnant to her — the instruction of children. For fifteen 
or sixteen years she continued to fill this distasteful duty, 
" at the point of the sword," as she described it.^ 

Thus we see that in directing Mere Angelique, her sisters, 
and the other nuns of Port-Royal, St. C5n-an's method was 
a most severe and imbending one. He won them over to 
a life of penitence, silence, and perpetual abnegation of self 
in a holier, diviner existence to come, not by honeyed words 
or enticing promises of future reward, but by tearing aside 
the veil from their weaknesses, and the betrayal of each as 
she really was. It is extraordinary how he managed to 
impress them with his and Jansenius's sentiment of devo- 
tion to the Truth, For from the first these simple souls 
seemed to thrive on Truth, shorn of exaggeration or tender- 
ness. Seeking neither to analyse or probe it, from the 
beginning they accepted the conception given them by their 
spiritual guide, and were willing to lay down their lives for 
it, classing it under no ism or sect. 

And now, just as through the medium of a friendship and 
the imagination of a nun, apparently by the accident of 
Chance, the principles of Jansenius and St. Cyran, their 
realistic understanding of religion had at last definitely 
found their way into Port-Royal de Paris, it was ordained that 
St. Cyran's influence should dominate a new and more complex 
element still in the monastic life : that represented by the 
Recluses or Solitaires. ' ' 

Sainte-Beuve to the contrary, this third panel of our 
^ Clemencet, Port-Royal, ii. p. 25. 2 M^moiresetJielaHons, p. 38. 



54 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

picture was not merely the outcome of a theological dogma, 
but, like Luther's Protestantism, the result of a real revolt 
and a very real enthusiasm. It is from this standpoint that 
it is chiefly interesting to-day. 

A description of the Society of Port-Royal takes us back 
again to the valley of the river Yvette, where we must study 
the chief Enthusiasts themselves : the worldly devots et 
devotes, or honorary members of the association, as well as 
the issue of the teachings and writings of these Solitaires on 
the world at large. 



PART II 

PORT-ROYAL IN ITS GREATNESS 
1636-1653 



CHAPTER I 
THE FIRST SOLITAIRES AND THEIR ENTHUSIASMS 

" On ne s'el^ve point aux grandes verites sans enthousiasme." 

Vauvenargues 

NOT long after the Arnauld family, with M^re Ang61ique at 
its head, had submitted itself to the spiritual guidance 
of St. Cyran, the wife of M. d'Andilly fell ill of a serious 
malady. This lady, daughter of the distinguished ambassador 
and statesman, M. de La Boderie, was much more worldly 
minded than the Arnaulds, having been brought up at the 
court of Marie de Medecis in the days when the royal favourite, 
the Italian Concini, Mar^chal d'Ancre, had imported the 
spirit of luxury and elegance into the circle surrounding 
the young Louis xiii — a taste which was not killed with the 
murder of Concini or the disgrace of the Queen Mother. 
Only fourteen at the time of her marriage to M. d'Andilly, 
her husband, ten years older, then patronizingly described 
his bride as endowed with as many graces as could be expected 
in one so young. 

In 1636, Madame d'Andilly was scarcely thirty-seven, 
and stiU young and gay, in spite of the fact that she had 
borne fifteen children, ten of whom lived to mature age. 
But, when stricken down with a fatal malady in the 
midst of her pleasure and duties, she suddenly felt the 
need of religion, and the Abbe de St. Cyran was hastily 
called to her bedside to prepare her for that last long 
journey. 

For some days, the eldest of the five sons of M. 

d'Andilly's sister, Catherine Le Maitre, also sat by this 

death-bed, and the words of St. Cyran as he apostrophized 

the passing soul came as a revelation to the spirit of the 

57 



58 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

young man, hitherto absorbed in the race for worldly 
distinction. 

" Partez, ame chretienne, partez de ce monde, au nom de 
Dieu, qui vous a cr^e ! " ^ 

came the solemn voice of the priest. Following that soul 
in mental vision, fleeing from the world to appear before 
the Judgment Seat, in a flash, a realization of his own 
shortcomings, the futility of human ambition, overcame 
this descendant of the Arnaulds. Tears welled into his eyes, 
fear and anguish swelled his heart, until, unable to control 
his emotion, he rushed from the room of Death, out into the 
garden and the stillness of the August night. 

Here for hours he fought the fight of the soul over the flesh, 
and, ere the morning dawned, possessed by an enthusiasm of 
renunciation and penitence, he resolved to give up his dreams 
of worldly happiness and honour, and from that moment to 
put his newly-awakened being under the spiritual guidance 
of the man whom he had just heard admonishing his aunt's 
departing spirit. ^ 

Called to the Bar at twenty, and beginning a year later to 
plead in the courts, Antoine Le Maitre, worthy successor to 
Simon Marion and Antoine Arnauld, had soon earned the 
reputation of being the greatest advocate of France, surpassing 
the souvenirs left by both his ancestors. In fact, fearful of 
talking to empty benches, on the days when M. Le Maitre was 
to conduct a suit in the court, the other advocates of Paris 
arranged never to occupy their places, but to go instead to 
listen to the famous orator in the Grand' Chambre, which was 
too small to hold all those desirous of listening to him.^ Thus 
the excitement in legal and other circles over the news of his 
disappearance was intense. Some thought he was mad ; 
others that he was over-influenced ; aU blamed the action he 
took in thus not only separating himself from worldly things, 
but in embracing at the same time poverty, obscurity, isolation, 
silence — a death in life. Some were malicious enough to say 
he left the Bar hoping to succeed to greater honours in the 

^ " Depart, Christian Soul, leave this world, in the name of God AU- 
Powerful, who has created thee" {Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 144). 
2 Lancelot, MSmoires, i. p. 309. 
^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 372. 




ANTOINE LE MAITRE, PORT ROYAL'S FIRST SOLITAIRE 

FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PORTRAIT BY PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAGNE 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 59 

Church ; ^ Balzac, a more discriminating friend, wrote to 
Chapelain as follows : 

" Secondary causes — such as you would call a failure in 
love, rebuff from superiors, or other misfortune of that nature — 
have no part in this change of heart." ^ 

While Chapelain in reply vowed that Le Maitre's act, 
instead of filling him with indignation, as it did many, aroused 
his admiration. 

Much excited, the Hotel Rambouillet was divided in its 
opinion. Mademoiselle de Scudery, whom Ninon de I'Enclos 
had called " the Jansenist of Love," was loud in her apprecia- 
tion, exclaiming : 

" Tobe capable of these great attachments, requires Virtue " ; ^ 
others found it quixotic and senseless. 

Whatever actuated M. Le Maitre, it is certain that he ac- 
quired his distaste of the world and his pleasures not through 
satiety, nor fear of future punishment, but a divine premoni- 
tion of the passing away of earthly things, and the eternal en- 
durance of the heavenly.* In this respect, he marked a new 
departure, not only in the religious life of his time, but in that 
of the Amauld family. His grandfather and great-grandfather 
— even his uncle M. d'Andilly — had been pious, but in their 
piety was a distinct spice of worldliness, for, while anxious to 
secure their future fate, they were by no means indifferent to 
providing for their advancement here below. 

In his letter to M. Seguier, Lord High Chancellor of Paris, 
Le Maitre himself explained his motive : 

" I demand of God," he said, '* no other grace than that 
of living and dying in His service. I desire no commerce 
either by spoken or written word with the world, which has 

* Tallemant des Reaux thus describes Antoine Le Maitre : "In the 
world, he was a gentleman of a somewhat easy morality ; it was thought 
that when he went into retreat, it was out of vexation at not having been 
made Advocate-General. . . . Others thought that he designed to become 
a preacher, but that Devotion caught him on the road" {Historiettes, vol. iv. 
74). Sainte-Beuve, however, says Le Maitre refused the office of Advocate- 
General {Port-Royal, i. 371). 

2 Oscar de Vallee, De V Eloquence Judiciare au Dix-septUme SUcle, p. 419. 
^ " II faut de la vertu pour etre capable de ces grands attachements " 
{ibid. p. 427). 

* The same historian says: "Lemaistre renounced, with other pleasures, 
that which comes from the approbation of the world, because he had separated 
the Immortal from the Perishable." 



6o THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

thought to ruin me. I wish to pass my life in as complete 
a solitude as if I were in a monastery." 

When told of Le Maitre's resolution, St. Cyran had fully 
understood the responsibility entailed upon himself, and 
although joyful over the conversion, did not fail to exhort 
the young man to do nothing hastily. On the expiration of 
a year, as Le Maitre continued in the same mind, St. Cyran 
realizing that his convert was sincere, occupied himself with 
the question of what to do with him. Convinced that a 
life apart was best, but undecided where to place him, he 
received the young man temporarily in his own lodgings in 
the Luxembourg quarter, opposite the Chartreux, whither he 
had removed a short time before in order to be nearer Port- 
Royal de Paris. 

It was not St. Cyran finally, but Madame Le Maitre, who 
solved the difficulty as to a place of asylum. When the nuns 
removed to Paris, she herself had entered Port -Royal as a 
simple postulante, and although she did not take the veil 
until some years later, at the death of her husband, 
her talent for affairs, her practical genius, had long been 
invaluable to her sister, Mere Angelique. And now, on the 
receipt of the good news that her eldest son was to embrace the 
life of a religious hermit, she remembered an old privilege 
granted the Abbey of Port-Royal in 1223 by Pope Honors iii. 
At that time, this Pope issued a Bull by which — among other 
rights — the then newly founded Cistercian Abbey might serve 
as a retreat to those persons of secular profession, who, un- 
willing to take upon themselves monastical vows, were yet 
desirous of retiring from the world, and leading lives of peni- 
tence and seclusion. 1 

For four hundred years, this privilege remained a seeminglj^ 
unappreciated, forgotten thing of documental record. Now, 
remembering it, Madame Le Maitre was so filled with en- 
thusiasm that she determined to build for her son a little house 
in the grounds of her beloved Port-Royal de Paris. As M. de 
St. Cyran approved the plan, work was straightway begun on 
the building. But what was the pious mother's further delight, 
when her second and favourite son, Simon Le Maitre de S6ri- 
court, three years younger than Antoine, suddenly decided to 
follow his brother's example. 

* Racine, Abrdgi de I'Histoire de Port'Royal (Gazier), p. 2. 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 6i 

By profession a soldier, at twenty-four years of age De 
Sericourt, as he was called, had attained the rank of Major, 
and shortly before Antoine's conversion was serving in the 
fortress of Phillipsbourg on the Rhine, where one of his cousins 
was commander. On a winter's night, the citadel was surprised 
by troops of the Emperor, and by means of ice-covered moats 
made to surrender. De Sericourt and Arnauld were taken 
prisoners to Esslingen, from whence, by the address and 
strategy of the latter, they both escaped to Venice, thence to 
France.^ 

This experience seems to have been the first thing to attract 
M. de Sericourt's serious attention to the fact that a Divine 
Providence was watching over him. Then he was told of his 
brother De Saci's progress in piety under St. Cyram, and, 
recalled to Paris by Madame d'Andilly's death, went in a 
strange mood to see Antoine in St. C5n:an's apartment. At 
first he failed to recognize in the pale preoccupied student 
before him the brilliant advocate and man of the world he had 
parted with some years previously. 

Noticing his brother's astonishment, and embracing him 
warmly, Le Maitre asked gaily if he did not know him. *' The 
former Le Maitre," he said, " is dead to the world ; this one 
seeks nothing more than to die here to himself. . . ." 

" Do you too," he continued, " like many people of the 
world, do me the honour to think me mad ? " 

" Not I," replied De Sericourt earnestly ; " you and I were 
educated in too Christian a manner not to be aware that 
there are wise as well as mad follies. Yours I should call 
a wise folly. Indeed, from the moment I heard the news, I 
have wished many times to be able to imitate you. I came 
here half conquered, but what I see has made it complete." ^ 

Then, even as his brother had sacrificed his wig and gown, 
De Sericourt offered up his sword to St. Cyran, writing : 

" Sir, — If I might have the happiness to see you, I would 
throw myself at your knees, and put my sword at your feet, 
even as my brother has put his pen." ^ 

Awaiting the completion of the new home planned by their 
mother, the brothers Le Maitre lived at Port-Royal de Pans in 
a temporary apartment allotted to them by the nuns. Yet while 

^ Memoires de I'Abbe Arnauld (Petitot), xxxiv. p. 132. 

* Fontaine, Memoires, i. p. 80, etc. • Ibid, p. 82. 



62 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

so near the human companionship which the nuns signified, 
they were really severed from it by more than stone walls : by 
that stern determination of the religious recluse to steadfastly 
crucify every natural impulse. For, calling themselves First 
and Second Hermit, they at once began to literally carry out 
St. Cyran's idea of separation from all human ties in order 
the more closely to approach the Divine Presence. Their 
solitude a deux was one of absolute silence : not a word passed 
their lips, even to each other. Here they learned that first 
lesson of the recluse, of which Montaigne wrote so under- 
standingly : 

" La plus grande chose du monde est de savoir etre a soi." 

Soon, however, other penitents were added to their number. 
The place in the community of the Third Recluse, Claude 
Lancelot, was already written in the Book of the Future as 
that of Humanist, Hellenist, and Mathematician. He too 
owed the depth and sincerity of his enthusiasm to St. Cyran, 
and his spiritual progress forms a charming background to 
that of his two older friends. Unlike them, he was not a 
sudden convert from the world, having since his twelfth year 
been educated in the community of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. 
It was by meBns of his own studies that he had come to admire 
the Old Fathers of the Church, for, from the time of entering 
the monastery, the boy had never heard the New Testament 
read aloud. ^ Through these studies, longings for a re- 
naissance of the ancient spirit of religion, as evidenced in 
St. Augustine and St. Thomas, filled his heart. 

When Lancelot was about twenty-one years of age, St. 
Cyran, who was a friend of M. Bourdoise, Head of the Seminary, 
began coming to St. Nicolas, and occasionally saying Mass 
there. For a long time, the modest youth, unaccustomed to 
the world, did not dare approach the Abbe, around whom in 
his own mind he had built up an ideal of a seventeenth-century 
St. Augustine. 

Finally, desire to talk with him grew so strong that, sum- 
moning up courage, two days after the death of Madame 
d'Andilly he boldly knocked at the Abbe's door. 

* "And as for the New Testament, I had been at St. Nicolas up to the 
age of twenty without having been made to read a single line, at least in private " 
(Lancelot, Mimoires, p. 29). 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 63 

St. Cyran was still under the spell of that exhausting ex- 
perience, but he received Lancelot kindly and sympathetically. 
Lancelot had never heard of Port-Royal, nor had he ever seen 
Antoine Le Maitre, although the name of the brilliant advocate 
was known to him. Yet his own great desire was to put him- 
self under the guidance of St. Cyran and to lead a life apart, 
and on being told of Le Maitre's conversion and plan of retire- 
ment, this desire became persistent. With his usual caution, 
it was not until time had proved the young penitent's sincerity 
that St. Cyran consented to associate him with Le Maitre 
and De Sericourt, and then as a last warning he said : 

" Although I am credited with having some knowledge, 
I may yet never impart it to you. St. Hilary was one of the 
cleverest men of his time, but he did not make a scholar of 
St. Martin." 1 

Antoine Singlin, the Fourth Hermit, was destined to play a 
great part at Port-Royal. Born at Paris in 1607, he was the 
son of a wine merchant, and early apprenticed to a dealer in 
cloth. In the latter business he remained until the age of 
twenty-two, when, religious feeling fermenting for years in his 
soul, became so strong that one day of his own accord he sought 
out Vincent de Paul, Superior of the Peres de la Mission, to 
ask his advice for the future. 

" Become a priest," was the reply of his oracle ; so, after 
studying the proper length of time, Singlin entered the Order 
of Missionaries, and, taking priestly vows, was placed by 
Vincent de Paul as Catechist and Confessor in the Hopital de 
la Pitie. Here he met St. Cyran, who, recognizing his qualities, 
introduced him to the nuns of Saint-Sacrement in the position 
of Confessor. By the usual evolution, it was not long before 
Singlin, becoming dissatisfied with the administration of the 
Hopital de la Pitie, wished to put himself entirely in St. Cyran's 
hands. The latter did not refuse him, but, to try the mettle 
of his new disciple, sent him, the summer of 1637, with several 
children under his charge down to the deserted Port-Royal 
des Champs. Here, in the solitude, Singlin had an opportunity 
of retiring within himself, and renewing his whole being under 
the stimiilus of the teaching of St. Cyran. Although he had 
already served some years as a priest, during his retreat at 
^ Lancelot, Memoires, i. p. 34. 



64 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Port-Royal des Champs, he abstained from saying Mass until 
he felt himself more worthy. Returning to Paris at the 
commencement of the winter, he joined the recluses at Port- 
Royal de Paris, determined to devote himself to poverty and 
penitence. This he did to such purpose that 

" He had," Lancelot relates in his Memoir es,^ " only a poor 
dressing-gown of violet serge, and wore the shabbiest 
clothes, no one being able to induce him to buy new ones. 
Giving his own room to one of his pupils, little Bignon, he 
himself lodged in a miserable cabinet in the corner of the 
staircase, very cold, very dark, and exposed to all the noise 
of the Faubourg. There he studied all night long, sleeping 
on a board completely dressed, one or two hours only." 

And yet it was in this man that St. Cyran saw the ideal priest, 
that '* Third Officer of God after Jesus Christ in the Church," 
him who had power to remit sins and offer the sacrifice. 

Among the very first to join Le Maitre and Sericourt at 
Port -Royal de Paris in the beginning was a certain M. de 
Bascle, a gentleman from Quercy in Beam. The history of 
this man is a sad one of treachery and deceit, where he had a 
right to expect loyalty and truth. Discovering on the very 
day of his marriage that his wife had grossly deceived him, 
he so brooded over his sorrow as to completely ruin his health. 
Fortunately, wreckage of the physical brought life and strength 
to a soul which had been careless and unregenerate. The 
strong personality of St. Cyran originally took hold of this 
heartsick man during his illness, through the potency of 
a vision, in which he saw St. John the Baptist standing in a 
desert, pointing out to him a valley at the foot of a mountain 
as the refuge of penitence. ^ On leaving Quercy about two 
years before Le Maitre's retreat, and coming to Paris to try 
to get a position as tutor, De Bascle, meeting St. Cyran by 
chance, was startled to see in the famous Abbe the St. John 
of his dreams. Afterward, going down to Port -Royal des 
Champs — behold the very valley and mountain toward which 
St. John was pointing ! 

This remarkable incident decided the already penitent 
sinner to at once put himself under the care of St. Cyran, and 

' i- p- 35- 

« A. Le Maitre, " Histoire de M. de Bascle," i2^cem7 de Plusieurs Pi^es pour 
servir d I' Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 183. 



\ 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 65 

to retire to Port-Royal. Like Lancelot, his especial duty 
at Port-Royal was in connection with children, whom from 
the first the Sohtaires had begun to teach. That he was 
appreciated in this field of work, is proved by a letter from 
M. de Bernieres to M. d'Andilly a few years afterward, in 
which he spoke of De Bascle as 

" the joy of my heart, the love of my children, and the repose 
of my poor and desolate house of Chesnai." ^ 

Le Maitre's four brothers were all members of the com- 
munity. Of these only one resembled the first two in the 
depth and sincerity of his devotion. This was Isaac Louis Le 
Maitre, known as De Saci through an anagram framed from 
his Christian name. He was peculiarly St. Cyran's religious 
creation ; and, placed by his mother early under the care of 
the family saint, he steadily progressed in piety, until it was 
recognized that in him, like Singlin, was the spirit of the true 
priest. Not only St. Cyran, but Singlin realized this, and very 
early the latter chose De Saci for his successor, saying : 

'' He must grow and I must efface myself." ^ 

De Saci once wrote to Le Maitre ^ his opinion concerning 
their younger brothers, Jean Le Maitre de St. Elme and 
Charles Le Maitre de Valmont, both of whom were under 
his charge during the early days at Port-Royal. He found 
them peculiar natures and difficult to understand. De 
Valmont, he said, was the more annoying because, although 
more polite in his manners, he always had his own way ; 
De St. Elme, on the contrary, yielded to caprice, but 
afterwards again became amenable. Both finally left the 
monastery and went back to secular life, leading existences 
which, if not exactly godless, were not pious. De Valmont 
died at Port-Royal in 1652 ; De St. Elme married, and sent 
his three daughters to Port-Royal to be educated, living himself 
until the year 1690. 

The daily routine began for the Solitaires at an hour 
after midnight, when aU assembled in Singlin's room to say 
Matins. It was the duty of the military De Sericourt to 
waken his fellow-hermits, and this he did with the greatest 

* Lettre k M. d'Andilly, 12 Mai 1662, 

2 Fontaine, M6moires, i. p. 341. 3 /';j^^ {_ p_ 121. 

5 



66 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

regularity. After Matins and Laudes, they kissed the ground, 
as did the nuns, imitating in this Abraham, Moses, Joshua, 
and others, continuing prostrate long enough to say a Miserere.^ 
The remainder of the day was then spent in meditation, 
prayer, and reading of the Bible and the Fathers of the Church. 

But, to leave the Solitaires for a moment, the ecclesiastical 
world of Paris was much excited by the publication of those 
anonymous writings signed " Petrus Aurelius " — writings which 
combated the policy of Richelieu and the Church by powerfully 
establishing the doctrine that the Church was not a monarchy 
but a hierarchy of Bishops. The Jesuits called them rank 
Calvinism, but to Richelieu, who was especially heated just 
then on the subject, they were unbearable. The great minister 
was intent upon persuading Louis xiii, who had not enough 
emotion to feel real remorse for sin, that absolution did not 
depend upon actual penitence, but could be granted by the priest 
if the penitent were contrite for whatever cause, even though 
torn only by fear of future punishment. " Petrus Aurelius " 
had no compunction in asserting, on the contrary, that pardon 
for sin was only possible in cases of real contrition of heart. 

The placing of the authorship of the utterances of Petrus 
Aurelius upon the man whom he had called " the First Scholar 
in Europe," was by this time not disagreeable to Richelieu, 
whose ear had first of all been poisoned by his henchman, Pere 
Joseph, whom St. Cjnran had supplanted in the confidence of 
the nuns of Calvaire. Then for two years M. Zamet, in revenge 
for St. Cjnran's supposed bad offices to himself with the Port- 
Royal nuns, had been carrying on a series of machinations 
against the Abbe, accusing him of diverting souls from their 
communion, etc. Moreover, St. Cyran had refused all the five 
abbeys offered him, and little by little had been constituting 
himself a stumbling-block in some of Richelieu's dearest plans. 
As politician. Cardinal Richelieu desired nothing more ardently 
than the annulment of Gaston d'Orleans' marriage with 
Marguerite de Lorraine. 

*' No,'' St. Cyran declared quite openly to Richelieu, " the 
wedding of Monsieur is indissoluble, and I cannot comprehend 
your reasons for saying it is not." 

In addition to this and similar contraventions, Richelieu had, 

* NUrologe de Notre-Dame de Port'Royal des Champs, Preface. 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 67 

as St. Cyran himself confessed, *' seventeen other grievances," 
probably one of the most powerful being the fact that St. Cyran 
knew some very secret details about his private life. Irre- 
trievably incensed at last by so much opposition, Richelieu 
decided to incarcerate this rebel where he could do no more 
mischief. So, at two o'clock in the morning on the 14th May 
1638, the garden of St. Cyran's house near the Luxembourg 
was invaded by a company of rude soldiers. At six, entering 
the Abbe's chamber and finding him quietly reading with his 
nephew, M. de Barcos, they notified him of the King's order 
that he should follow them. 

" Very well," said St. Cyran, betraying neither surprise 
nor alarm, " let us go where the King commands " ; 

and, asking permission to change his dressing-gown for his 
priest's soutane, he declared himself ready to accompany 
the royal messengers. 

In passing through the park of Vincennes, it chanced 
that the carriage containing St. Cyran encountered that of 
M. d'Andilly, who was on his way to his estate of 
Pomponne. 

Gaily the latter, not observing that his friend's escort 
were soldiers, called out — 

" Where are you taking aU these good people ? " 

" Oh, they are taking me," replied the Abbe, and, stopping 
to explain the situation to M. d'Andilly, he asked if the latter 
had not some book to lend him, as in his preoccupation on 
leaving home he had forgotten to put one in his pocket. 
Fortunately, M. d'Andilly had a copy of The Confessions of 
St. Augustine, and he gladly gave it to the prisoner. Then, 
embracing one another sadly and tenderly, the two friends 
parted, M. d'Andilly turning full of sorrow and misgiving 
toward Pomponne, St. Cyran, with his precious copy of 
St. Augustine in his hand, being driven toward the prison.^ 

This arrest was a blow not only to the nuns of Port-Royal 
and all Jansenist sympathizers, but especially the Solitaires, for 
from the beginning of their retreat St. Cyran had been accus- 
tomed to visit them at least every other day, and his spirit 
was dominant everyv^^here. During the short period of his 
actual presence among them, after overlooking the lessons 

1 Besoigne, Histoire de I'Abbaie de Port-Royal, ii. pp. 385-386, 



68 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

and occupations of the children, he would go to the room of 
each recluse in turn for personal advice and encouragement. 
At his suggestion, the little community grew into the habit 
of reading in common St. Augustine's treatise on the True 
Religion, and at other times St. Cyran ravished them all, 
especially Singlin and Le Maitre, — both of whom required the 
spur of theological and intellectual food, — by himself reading 
aloud and explaining the Evangelists. 

Almost simultaneously with this arrest, a new trouble 
came to the Solitaires, for suddenly the Archbishop of Paris 
bethought him that it was not proper for men to live in such 
close proximity to the nuns. Forced to withdraw from 
the Paris monastery, with the permission of the Prelate, the 
recluses determined to take refuge in the abandoned Abbey 
of Les Champs. Arriving there in the early days of June 
1638, they found the place in a lamentable state of ruin and 
desolation. During the twelve years which had elapsed 
since the nuns left, the buildings had become dilapidated, 
the grounds much overgrown with underbrush, and full of 
vipers, the marshy pool stagnant and fetid. Yet all still had 
the " sad and fearful beauty " remarked by Anne-Eugenie 
Arnauld on her first arrival there twenty years before.^ 

For a time the recluses remained in the deserted historic 
spot, trjdng to lead the life they had been accustomed to, 
studying, praying, and each evening, in search of better air 
than the poisoned atmosphere of the swamp afforded, mount- 
ing the hill at the back. Here in the farm called Les Granges, 
added to the monastery by Jehanne the Second, they could 
rest in the purer ether, and say their evensong of praise and 
thanksgiving, ''letting their voices witness," as Lancelot 
said, 

" to the joy of their souls, and to the fact that God might still 
be praised publicly, even when men thought to hold Truth 
captive." ^ 

But alas ! only three months after St. Cyran's imprison- 
ment, the peace at Port-Royal des Champs was rudely broken 
in upon by the visit of an infamous Commissioner sent by 
Richelieu to discover further points of evidence against 
St. Cyran. 

^ M^moires et Relations, p. 35. '^ Memoires, i. p. 109- 



THE FIRST SOLITAIRES 69 

Arriving at an early hour of the morning with the intention 
of surprising the SoHtaires, this Commissioner, M. Laubarde- 
mont, knocking at Le Maitre's door, found him completely 
dressed in mourning garb at his prie-dieu, praying for the 
release of St. C3n:an. Asking the distinguished Penitent 
whether it was true that he was in the habit of having visions, 

" Yes," replied Le Maitre, " I do have visions. When I 
open this window (opening one) I see the village of Vaumurier ; 
when I open this, I see that of St. Lambert. These are all 
my visions." 

Furious at being thus answered, Laubardemont then 
attacked each of the Solitaires, interrogating even the innocent 
pupils of only eight or ten years of age.^ But he could discover 
nothing, nor could he prove any undue influence of the prisoner 
at Vincennes. Before leaving, however, he informed the 
Solitaires that they must abandon their retreat within five 
days. Thus, although when Laubardemont 's interrogatory 
was reported at Paris the laugh was at the expense of 
Richelieu and his emissaries, the pain was that of the pious 
recluses, for exile and change lay before them. 

Where were they now to find refuge ? Fate decided. It 
took Antoine Le Maitre, who had thought never again to 
return to Paris, back to the Faubourg St. Jacques, where in a 
little inn called the Barbe d'Or, not far from Port-Royal de 
Paris, he deliberated on the next move to make. 2 This was 
decided for him through Lancelot, to whom an asylum was 
offered by one of his pupils in the town of La Ferte Milon, fifty 
miles from Paris. Here both he, Sericourt, and Singlin found 
a home, and here they remained for thirteen months as the 
guests of a certain Madame Vitart, a woman of vital interest 
in our history as the great-aunt of Jean Racine, the literary 
glory of Port-Royal's close. 

In the few short months of his life at the Champs, 
Le Maitre had grown so fond of the scene of his spiritual 
struggles, his victories over the physical nature around him, that 
in exile he characteristically turned to poetry to express his 

^ Lancelot, Mimoires, i. p. in. 

^ " M. Le Maitre," says Lancelot {Mimoires, i. p. ii8), " had the greatest 
difl&culty of them all in finding a retreat. His merit rendering him the most 
considerable, each one feared to irritate the Powers in taking him away." 



70 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

nostalgia. Time and time again during his stay at La Ferte 
Milon he used to recite — never without tears in his eyes — 
the following verse, which he himself composed : 

' Lieux charmants, prisons volontaires, 
On me bannit en vain de vos sacrcs deserts ; 
Le supreme Dieu que je sers 
Fait partout de vrais solitaires." ^ 

^ Rough translation : 

Lovely vistas, prisons free as air, 

In vain am I from thy deserts banned, 

The God supreme who doth my will command. 

Makes true recluses everywhere. 

(Fontaine, i. p. 87.) 



CHAPTER II 

RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES TO PORT-ROYAL 
DES CHAMPS, AND EARLY DAYS THERE 

" I am the Vine, ye are the branches. . . . Greater love hath no man 
than this, that a man lay down his hfe for his friends " 

DURING the summer of 1639, the inhabitants of the 
town of La Ferte Milon became used, on fine evenings, 
as they sat before their cottage doors, to seeing the 
four Messieurs, very simply attired, march past in single file, 
devoutly saying their beads. Out of respect, and impressed 
by the unaffected piety of these holy men, the villagers had 
the habit of rising and keeping profound silence as they 
passed. And each day the four recluses, in remembrance of 
their daily walk up to Les Granges, religiously climbed at 
nightfall the hill behind La Ferte, and in all other respects 
endeavoured in their exile to faithfully reproduce the details 
of their former existence in the desert.^ 

After thirteen months of banishment, things being a little 
quieter in Paris, it was thought safe for Le Maitre and 
Sericourt to return incognito to Port -Royal des Champs. 
On learning of the proposed departure of the two hermits, 
the Misses Racine, with whom the recluses had necessarily 
come in contact in the house of Madame Vitart their aunt, 
suddenly appeared before Le Maitre in a strange pitch of 
excitement. Evidently of most impulsive disposition, and 
hardly knowing what they said, the two sisters began re- 
proaching him, asking why he had ever come at all if he 
had meant so soon to forsake them. Startled by such an 
unexpected accusation, the Solitaire answered very gently 
that he would never forget the goodness they had shown 

^Lancelot, MSmoires, i. p. 124. 



72 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

him, and that he never forsook anything he had once shown 
an interest in. Whereupon, to his surprise and consternation, 
without any warning, the indiscreet sisters, throwing them- 
selves at his feet, begged him either to remain in La Ferte 
or to take them with him wherever he went ! 

Determined now to put an end to this unseemly situation, 
Le Maitre again plainly but decidedly told them that he must 
go. Whereupon the young women boldly replied : 

''Do as you please, but we declare to you that we will 
never leave you ! " 

Here was indeed a psychological problem for the earnest 
Penitent to solve ! Womenkind in general were, he knew, 
snares of the Devil, so as best he might he reiterated his 
assertion that he was obliged to go, and that it was impossible 
for them to follow him. 

Resolved not to be outdone, the two enthusiasts then 
applied to Mere Angelique, who, less severe than her nephew, 
actually accorded them a dwelling situated within the pre- 
cincts of Port-Royal des Champs, but separated by several 
large courtyards from the place where the Solitaires were to 
dweU.i 

When St. Cyran heard that the Solitaires had gone to live 
in a town — that place where " the Devil walks in the streets " ^ 
— the wise Director of Souls had been much disturbed. Now, 
learning what had happened, he at once wrote to Le Maitre as 
follows : 

" Whereas," he argued, " if an ordinary man wishes to be 
virtuous and chaste, he must rarely allow himself conversation 
with the other sex ; once having become a penitent and recluse, 
he must never even speak to a woman." 

On reading these words of his spiritual master and Director, 
the First Solitaire characteristically decided on the spot not 
only never again to leave his cell, but to have converse with no 
one whomsoever. And he kept this latter resolution until 
again St. Cyran had to interfere and remind him that true 

^ Fontaine, Memoires, i. p. loo. 

2 " For," he said, " I myself know the Devil a Uttle. . . . One must be 
old in the trade to know its ruses. . . . The slightest clouds are to be feared " 
{Ibid. i. p. 102). 



RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 73 

penitence lay, not in the extremes, but in the middle road 
of Time and Place. ^ 

In their exile at La Ferte the influence of the Solitaires 
was productive of some notable conversions, but was 
especially perceptible in the Racine family itself. Marie 
des Moulins, Jean Racine's grandmother, retired some 
years afterward to Port-Royal, where her sister was already 
cloistered, in the humble position, it was said, of cellarer. 
The daughter of Madame Racine also became a nun at about 
the same time. Madame Vitart did not actually enter Port- 
Royal, but remained all her life the true and constant friend 
of les Messieurs, hiding them in her house, and doing 
them whatever service she could. Her husband went so 
far as to forsake wife and children to follow Le Maitre and 
Sericourt back to Port-Royal des Champs, where he straight- 
way undertook the administrative part of the monastery 
(econome), leaving his more scholarly associates free to devote 
themselves exclusively to study and prayer. 

On the death of this good man some two years after their 
return, there was no one to manage household affairs or work 
on the farm. Moreover, owing to neglect and hard times, 
the property now yielded almost nothing, yet the convent 
in Paris depended upon revenue from the country estate 
for the major part of its income. Thus, forced to think 
of practical matters, the recluses began to put their enthusiasm 
to the test by endeavouring to reclaim the ground of the Abbey 
and the outlying farms, exalted in this effort by the thought 
that in so dong they w^ould be benefiting the nuns. 

The task was no light one ; it meant toil of hands and 
sweat of brow, the very prayers of the labourers having to 
be said wherever they happened to be — whether in the middle 
of a field sowing grain, in the swamps draining off the putrid 
water, or in the meadows mowing the grass or preparing 
the rows for the seed. 

For Le Maitre, work in the fields had primarily been very 
difficult. He confessed to Lancelot that he had only been 
constrained by a dream to render this service to the nuns. 
One night he saw in his sleep the Lord closely pursuing him 
and menacing him with death and ruin did he not help Christ's 
spouses; and awakening, as if beside himself, he was so frightened 

^ Fontaine, Memoires, i. p. loi. 



74 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

that there and then he jumped out of bed on to his knees, 
promising God to obey all His commands. ^ Thus, leaving 
his books and meditation, the great advocate became a 
worker in the fields. But while making hay in the heat of 
midday, and compelling from the stubborn earth its beauty 
and its increase, Antoine Le Maitre was fighting the rebellious 
impulses and desires of his own impetuous spirit, his body being 
constantly under the chastisement of a cilice ^ or hair shirt. 
And, when the physical work was done, he further disciplined 
his mind by the study of Hebrew, this being undertaken at 
the suggestion of St. Cyran, who was anxious to have some 
favourite Psalms and other religious treatises translated. ^ 
His natural gifts were thus turned to the service of God, 
and to the dissemination of knowledge. As may be 
imagined, both by Port - Royal primogeniture and his 
talents, Le Maitre was the King of Solitaires ; all were 
proud to have this great man at their head, and whenever 
he opened his lips, his words were listened to with avidity. 
His voice was rich, full- toned, his wit caustic, " his mouth 
full of words of gold." 

Like that of his grandfather, the mattresse voile of Le 
Maitre's eloquence is said to have been classical and Biblical 
allusions. On one occasion, defending the cause of a servant- 
girl betrayed by the son of a blacksmith, he called upon Mars 
and Neptune to interfere in her behalf. 

Voltaire, the cynical, said of Le Maitre apropos of the 
wisdom of publishing the speeches of orators : 

*' He was an advocate and considered very eloquent, till 
he so far yielded to vanity as to publish his speeches, when 
men thought so no longer." ^ 

But at Port-Royal, instead of electrifying by his reasoning, 
the beauty of his language and demeanour, a court-room full 
of men of the law, his eloquence was turned either toward 
astonishing a country judge, who had arraigned the nuns of 
Port -Royal, a new Director to whom he bade welcome in 

1 Lancelot, MSmoires, i. p. 126. 

2 M. de St. Cyran wrote Le Maitre from prison : "It will give me pleasure 
if you will send me some Psalms as you translate them. I like to sing the 
Psalms in my prison in the language of the Church, and I shall be glad to 
sing them in our tongue " (Fontaine, i. p. 105). 

• Oscar de Vallee, L'Eloquence judiciare au dix-septidme SUde, p. 437. 



RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 75 

the name of all, or only a parcel of schoolboys, among 
whom one day there was to stand the future great poet, 
Jean Racine.^ 

It is easy to picture the surprise and delight of the country 
judge when this to him unknown recluse pleaded, in a manner 
not heard before in the unlettered provinces, the cause of 
the nuns against an ignorant butcher. Finally, unable longer 
to contain his admiration, the judge, believing Le Maitre 
to be a merchant by the name of Dranc6, said to him : 

" Believe me, leave your business, follow the law, and I 
do not hesitate to guarantee that you will acquire quite as 
much renown as the celebrated Le Maitre.'' ^ 

Antoine Le Maitre's \mique compensation for the life of 
excitement and romance he had renounced, was to interrogate 
each new convert as he was added to the community on his 
personal spiritual experiences, every such recital giving him 
as much pleasiure as though it were a novel. 

For De Sericourt, the work out of doors was easier. His 
disposition was softer and more yielding. Strangely enough, 
the quality that remains to us from this first military enthusiast 
of Port-Royal is the sweetness and delicacy of his spirit. 
On becoming a convert, duty became his fetish ; to it, he 
sacrificed every impulse of a naturally warm heart, his life 
being spent in the practice of the most exhausting austerities. 
Antoine he loved with the tender affection of a child, but 
even this emotion he felt was alienating him from his heavenly 
vision, so, in the hope that nothing might stand between him 
and the Divine Love, he removed his cell farther and farther 
away from the earthly tie this proximity represented. 

Not having his brother's literary power, De Sericourt 
lacked in this speechless solitude the consolation of putting 
his thoughts on paper. But he was not long in finding his 
particular metier — one which was to become of great value 
at Port-Royal. This was the copying of his more gifted 
brother's writings, later on those of his young uncle, Antoine 
Arnauld. Through his initiative, this work became a favourite 
one at Port-Royal, and, others joining, the important com- 
positions of such Port-Royalists as Lancelot, Fontaine, and 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 394. 

2 Oscar de Valine, L' Eloquence judiciare au dix-sepiiime Sidcle, p. 437. 



76 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Du Fosse, whose memoirs and translations for many years 
existed in manuscript form only, were thus preserved/ none 
of them being printed before the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 

Among the first recruits at Port-Royal des Champs at this 
time was another Arnauld, a young son of M. d'Andilly, called 
Arnauld de Luzanci. Through his father's influence, this boy 
had served for some time as a page to Cardinal Richelieu, 
after which he was made an officer in the garrison of Havre 
de Grace. Undoubtedly inheriting the pious instincts of his 
family, at eighteen, during a serious illness, Luzanci began 
to think of his soul's welfare, and, seized with a desire to imitate 
the example of his cousin De Sericourt, announced his intention 
of leaving the army and becoming a recluse. 

On joining the workers at Port-Royal des Champs shortly 
afterwards, being neither learned nor lettered, Luzanci at 
once took to outdoor employment, and it was not long before 
he found his sphere of usefulness in a way most valuable to 
the nuns. Instituting a regular method of husbandry, he 
constituted himself the moving spirit in the direction of 
the work of tilling the ground of the farms neglected by 
insolvent tenants, and of superintending the labours of new 
hermits who gradually chose his department as their field of 
action. The first friend to join him was also a soldier of 
high station and reputation, called M. d'Eragny de la 
Riviere. 

Originally a Huguenot of Vexin, now become a zealous 
Catholic, this gentleman, first cousin of the Due de St. Simon, 
chose to leave a world which tried to hold him by many ties,^ 
to give up all his possessions, with the object of coming to 
Port-Royal to care for its woods, a neglected source of former 
income. Throughout all later persecution, he never ceased to 
care for his beautiful trees, leaving them only during the 
Fronde, when, a garrison being stationed at Les Granges, he 
was unwilling to meet those who had known him in his 
previous life. 

Never was a man harder upon himself, more regardless of 
the claims of his physical being, than M. de la Riviere. Eating 
but one meal a day, and that usually a plate of soup, he spent 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 404. 
2 Du Fosse, Mdmoires, i. p. 122. 



RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES ^^ 

his days in the forest, there in God's first temples shunning 
human society, and worshipping after his own fashion. This 
silent hermit was a great student, and although conversant 
with Italian and Spanish, learned Greek and Hebrew at 
Port-Royal without a master, so that he might be able to 
read the Bible in both languages. ^ For twenty-three years, 
M. d'Eragny de la Riviere lived on at Port -Royal, finally 
d5dng at the farm of Les Granges of a very acute and painful 
illness, which M. Hamon tells us he supported 

" like the most humble patient and the most submissive of 
criminals under sentence of death." ^ 

It was shortly before the First Dispersion that Singlin 
had a singular experience which led to the addition of one 
of the most self-sacrificing and eminent adherents ever known 
at the monastery. This was the visit to him in Paris of a 
priest called M. Charles Duchemin, who begged to be allowed 
to pass his days in the Desert in the exercise of penitence. 

Having entered Holy Orders without any real contrition 
of heart or particular vocation, Duchemin had acted for 
some years as vicar of a parish in the diocese of Beauvais. 
Some extraordinary ordeal he went through seems to have 
aroused his conscience at last, but on applying for advice to 
several people, each and every one told him it would be best 
for him to return to his vicarage and continue the life he had 
been leading. Finally, hearing of Port-Royal and its methods, 
he felt that retirement there would suit his needs : hence his 
appeal to M. Singlin. 

L After some hesitation, Singlin consented to accept the 
penitent priest at the Champs, and, ridding himself of his 
ecclesiastical preferments, in the profoundest secrecy as to his 
former career, the new convert joined the Hermits of the 
Desert. From that day until his death, thirty-seven years 
later, the mystery of this singular man's identity was hidden 
in that of M. Charles of Les Granges, by which name alone he 
was known. Once only did he go forth from his retreat, and 

^ Fontaine gives us a lively picture of this Solitaire as walking in the 
mud all day long without food, and applying himself to the study of 
languages in order to join work of the mind with that of the body" 
{M ^moires, i. p. 319). 

2 Histoire Abrige de la Dernidre Persecution de Port-Royal, p. 385. 



78 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

that was to receive an inheritance from his father — a sum 
which he immediately divided into two parts — one for the 
poor, the other for reparations on the monastery. ^ 

To this most zealous of workers on the farm, religion 
took precedence of every preoccupation — even of care of his 
farm, domestics, horses, animals. Absorbing as his work 
might be, it never interfered with his prayers, and his life was 
one long series of austerities. Always provided with a devo- 
tional book for leisure moments, he slept but three hours at 
night, seldom talked to any one, and was a lesson to the com- 
munity in his profound humility. At last, one day, feeling a 
great desire to be transported to that kingdom for which he 
had so long yearned, he prayed to God to deliver him from 
the miseries of the world. That very night, fever seized him, 
and in exactly eight days, at the hour of his prayer, his wish 
was fulfilled. 2 

Besides these hermits of high standing in the social and 
intellectual field, Port-Royal was blessed in domestics who 
were no less devoted to the cause. St. Cyran had begun 
that long line of Port-Royal hermits from the humbler walks 
of life by sending from his prison a convert he had made 
there of the nephew of one of his guards — a simple shoe- 
maker's apprentice named Charles de la Croix, and Lancelot 
chronicles that a number of youths from different provinces 
felt moved to come and spend their lives in this solitude. ^ 

Speaking of Charles de la Croix, " This youth," says Lance- 
lot,* " was deformed and very poor in Nature's gifts, but very 
rich in the endowments of grace, which God had poured with 
abundance into his soul, converting him miraculously, and 
giving him the spirit of penitence to practise almost incredible 
austerities." 

Charles de la Croix was soon followed by a ploughboy 
called Innocent Fai, than whom no high-born Solitaire was 
more pious or sincere. It was his habit to speak rarely, and 
then, says the memoirist, " only of edifying things." He was 

1 Nicrologe de VAhhaie de Port-Royal, pp. 140-141. ^ ii)id. 

' "The disinterestedness of some of these valets was such," says Lancelot, 
" that when the nuns afterward wished to assure them a pension, they could 
never be made to consent " {Mimoires, i. p. 342). 

♦ Ibid. p. 340. 



RETURN OF THE SOLITAIRES 79 

never idle, but even while ploughing he was engaged in reciting 
prayers he had learned by heart. His charity was a matter for 
wonder, for, not content with giving his wages to the poor, 
and despoiling himself of whatever small means he had, he 
used to go about barefooted because he had given away his 
boots. He died in 1660, aged thirty-nine.^ 

These first two domestics were followed by a number of 
others, all of whom were faithful in work and prayer and self- 
denial : one may read the edifying history of their lives in the 
Histoire Abrege de la Dernier e Persecution (1750). It is interest- 
ing to note that no difference was ever made at Port-Royal 
in the treatment of these servants and the other Solitaires. 
Port- Royal proved its spirit in this respect by the interring of 
all together — duke and peer by the side of ploughboy, hostler, 
farmer ; poet-philosopher with the ignorant and unlearned. 
All were considered " brothers " ; and Le Nain de Tillemont, 
Port-Royal's most famous pupil and priest, expressed the 
general sentiment when he wrote thus of the servants of the 
Champs : 

" They are as noble as we, and a man owes nothing to 
his fellow but fellowship." 2 

1 " We have had him buried in our church," said Mdre Angelique, " and 
not in the cemetery where one puts the other domestics, and we esteem our- 
selves more honoured that his body should be there than that of a great 
lord " (Clemencet, Histoire G6n6rale de Port-Royal, ii. p. 557). 

* See Tronchay's Life of Le Nain de Tillemont, 



CHAPTER III 
DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 

" On ne doit pas se troubler du passe, pourvu qu'a mettre ordre comme 
il faut a ravenir." Lettves Chrestiennes dc St. Cyran 

JANSENIUS'S later history shows him a man of action, 
and also a clever negotiator. Twice (in 1624 and 1626) 
sent by the University of Louvain to Spain to oppose 
the Jesuits in their desire to obtain there University privileges 
for their college, he acquitted himself with 

" address, firmness, and great consideration for himself." ^ 

Then again, being consulted by Flemish nobles, who, fearful of 
a Dutch invasion, were indignant at receiving no succour from 
Spain, his advice was to throw off the Spanish yoke, treat 
directly with Holland, and convert the country into cantons 
like the Swiss. ^ 

He is also said to have suggested at this consultation the 
union of the French Catholics with the Dutch Protestants, and 
the creation of a religious body between the two beliefs,^ an 
act which occasioned great excitement and roused public 
opinion against him. To correct this impression, and to pro- 
pitiate Spain, also in a fine impulse of patriotism, in concert 
with President Roze, he published a Latin pamphlet called 
Mars Gallicus, against the prerogative of the most Christian 
kings, and particularly the policy of Richelieu in allying him- 
self with Lutherans and Calvinists, painting very graphically 
the disasters which would thereby accrue to Catholic Germany. 
In this pamphlet, he also detailed the horrors of the siege of 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 299. 

2 Rapin, Histoire du JansSmsme, p. 271. 

5 Pdre Daniel, Traitd Theologiqiie, Letter from the Abbe de St. Germain. 

5o 



DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 81 

Tirlemont by the combined French and Dutch armies, and 
the atrocities committed toward the religious houses. The 
book was translated into French, and created a sensation, 
Richelieu being so incensed at the accusations it contained that 
he never forgave its author, some authorities asserting Mars 
Gallicus to have been the cause of all his later persecution of 
the friends of its author. ^ 

The King of Spain, however, rewarded Jansenius by the 
bishopric of Ypres. But, though still absorbed in the 
Augustinus, the new Bishop did not allow literary work to 
interfere with the duties of his diocese. These he punctually 
performed, whether at the expense of health or the more 
personal interests of writing. His conscientiousness in this 
respect has been compared with its lack in a very learned 
French Bishop, M. Huet of Avranches. When any of the 
members of the latter's district came to consult him, they 
always found his door closed, and were told that Monseigneur 
was studying : 

" Why do they give us a Bishop who has not finished his 
studies ? " they cried. ^ 

The life of Cornelius Jansenius, patriotic, self-denying, 
and sincere worker, ended prematurely on the 6th May 1638. 
There are various stories as to the cause of his death. One 
credits him with catching the plague when it broke out in 
Flanders, and we are thrilled by the account of his heroism in 
going to the infected place, visiting the sick, dressing the 
most loathsome wounds, and taking food and medicine to 
the patients. 3 Another report asserts that although the dread 
disease had previously raged in Ypres, at the time Jansenius 
was stricken, there was no great epidemic of it in the country. 
That he alone took it, gave his enemies the opportunity of 
saying that he was overtaken by Divine anger and malediction. 
Clemencet tells us that his death resulted from touching some 
infected ancient manuscripts in the Archives.* Whatever the 
immediate cause, his early death was also the result of a con- 
stitution weakened by too-continued study and thought, for 
only fifty-three years of age, like Calvin, this great religionist 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 303. * Ibid. ii. p. 92. 

3 Schimmelpenninck, Port-Royal, p. 53. 
* Clemencet, Port-Royal, iii. p. 230. 
6 



82 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

was worn out by the very intensity of his enthusiasm. It was 
only a few days before he fell ill that he finished his great work, 
and, making his will on his death-bed, his last act was to recom- 
mend the Augustinus to the Pope, saying that if the See of Rome 
wished to make any changes in the book, he was 

" a child of obedience and obedient child of the Roman 
Church, in which I have always lived up to this bed of death." ^ 

The epitaph placed upon Jansenius's tombstone in the old 
Cathedral of Ypres, beside the great altar, gave in epitome 
the estimate of him formed by sympathizers in his own day 
and countr5^ It read : 

" Here lies Cornelius Jansensius — comment enough : his 
virtue, his capacity, and his reputation say the rest. Long 
the admiration of savants in Louvain, regard for him only 
began there. He was raised to the episcopal dignity as a 
model for all Flanders, but appeared like the lightning-flash, 
extinguished at the moment of its illumination — such being 
the destiny of all things human, whose longest span is soon 
finished. . . . Yet he does not cease to live after death in 
his St. Augustine, of whom there was never a more faithful 
interpreter. He had something of the Divine in his spirit, 
and showed an indefatigable constancy in his work, his life 
ending with it.'* ^ 

As St. Cjnran's arrest took place only eight days after the 
death of Jansenius, there had not been time for him to learn 
the sad news ; and during the first days at Vincennes friends 
were fearful of adding to the prisoner's misery by this last 
blow, especially as they were then not sure that the Augustinus 
had been finished. When at last they heard that it had, 
St. Cyran was told, and on its publication two years later 
he was one of the first to read the work, which he had not 
seen in its completed form. In many ways the contents were 
a surprise to Jansenius's collaborator, but on the whole he 
was so struck with admiration that he pronounced its place 
as a treatise on Grace to be third only to the writings of 
St. Paul and St. Augustine. ^ 

1 EUies du Pin, Histoire ecclesiastique du ly SUcle, ii. p. 51. 

2Rapin, Histoire du Jansinisme, p. 371. In 1655 this inscription was 
destroyed and replaced by the simple words : " Hie jacet Cornelius Jansenius 
Episcopus Yprensis " (Ellies du Pin, Histoire eccUsiastique du ly SiUle, 

it. p. 51). 

8 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. 



DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 83 

At St. Cyran's interrogatory, which took place a year after 
his arrest, enemies failed to bring forward proofs of either 
Calvinism or heresy. Nevertheless, friends of the prisoner 
were unable to obtain his release from Vincennes. When the 
Prince de Conde wrote to Richelieu on the subject, the im- 
placable minister's reply was : 

" Savez-vous de quel homme vous me parlez ? II est plus 
dangereux que six armees ! " ^ 

Replying to others who demanded St. C5n*an*s liberation, 
Richelieu said : 

" If people had only made sure of Luther and Calvin in 
the same way, one would not have seen torrents of blood 
inundating France and Germany during fifty years." ^ 

After a short period of despair, the good Abbe endeavoured 
to make the most of his imprisonment. Characteristically, 
his first thoughts were for his disciples and the various souls 
under his spiritual care. He therefore sustained and com- 
forted them by long letters — beautiful words of consolation, 
encouragement, and common sense, afterward published in 
two octavo volumes, and famous under the title of Lettres 
Chrestiennes. Like the flame of St. Augustine's fiery heart, 
the warmth of his influence burned through the thick walls 
of Vincennes, reaching out and permeating the worldly as 
well as the most righteous of his correspondents. It was in 
prison, too, that he wrote some important doctrinal treatises. 
But after epistolary and literary duties were done, there still 
remained time and enough and to spare for works of extra- 
ordinary goodness and charity to the poor unfortunates 
about him. He converted the governor of his prison, and 
although he himself needed clothes to protect him from the 
cold, he sold his most valuable books in order to buy clothes 
for his fellow-prisoners, who, not knowing whose hand had 
relieved their needs, and seeing St. Cyran destitute, whispered 
among themselves that his state was a judgment on his heresy.* 

^ " Do you know of what man you speak to me ? He is more dangerous 
than six armies ! " (Besoigne, iii. p. 394). 
* Bausset, Histoire de FinHon, p. 16. 
'Schimmelpenninck, Por^-i^oya/, p. 31. 



84 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

A distinguished Dutch prisoner of war, who had been incar- 
cerated near St. Cyran at Vincennes, was taken on his release 
in 1641 to the Palais Cardinal to see a wonderful ballet given 
by Richelieu. When asked if he did not admire the spectacle, 
at which were assembled the greater number of the prelates 
of Paris, Jean de Verth replied that he indeed found it very 
beautiful, but that the thing which most surprised him in 
the most Christian realm of France was to see '* Bishops at 
the comedy, and Saints in prison." ^ 

When, in 1643, St. Cyran's prison doors were at last thrown 
open, release was due not to Louis xiii, Anne of Austria, or to 
Cardinal Richelieu, but to the chances of Life and Death. 
On Holy Relics Day in December 1642, they were chanting 
in the churches the words of the Epistle : 

" The fear of the Eternal prolongs one's days, but the 
years of the wicked shall be curtailed," 

as the great Cardinal lay dying — a man of only fifty-seven. 
And in February 1643, a decent time having elapsed after 
Richelieu's demise, all Vincennes was en fete over the Abbe's 
deliverance. With one accord, even the canons and prelates 
of the Cathedral turned out to congratulate him. His guards 
wept with happiness at his release, and with sadness at the 
thought of losing him from their charge. But, after five years 
confinement, privation, and hardship, the Prisoner of Vincennes 
was an old man, broken and bent by infirmities, and with the 
mark of Death plainly written on his features. 

On his way home, St. Cyran, escorted by M. d'Andilly, 
who had begged the privilege of fetching him in his carriage, 
made various visits. At Port-Royal de Paris he was awaited 
with feverish impatience. Not being able to keep the good 
news of their chief's deliverance from the nuns, and yet not 
wishing to break the silence of the cloister. Mere Agnes had 
that very morning in the refectory invented an ingenious 
way of telling the story. Standing mute before the whole 
community, she slowly untied the girdle round her waist, 
thus to signify that God had broken the bonds of his servant. 
Every one understood, and the silent joy was intense. 

Between the hours of five and six in the evening, having 
been notified of St. Cyran's visit, the nuns were assembled 

1 Racine, Ahy&g&, p. 28. 



DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 85 

in the Parloir St. Jean to receive him. But when he arrived, 
the excitement was so great as to become hysterical — M. de 
Rebours, the confessor of the monastery, being the innocent 
cause of an outburst of merriment. This good priest was 
very near-sighted, and when St. Cyran entered, one of the 
nuns chancing to notice M. de Rebours peering in a very 
comical way at the Abb6 through his lorgnette, she laughed 
light-heartedly. On hearing the sound, the rest of the 
community, in the exuberance of their relief, broke out 
simultaneously into irrepressible mirth. ^ 

This hilarity did not please the Abb6, who was about to 
address words of solemn import to the nuns, so, turning away, 
he said gravely that he would wait a more fitting moment in 
which to converse upon weighty subjects. 

For some days weariness prevented St. Cyran from going 
to his dear Solitaires at Port- Royal des Champs. Yet this 
visit lay even nearer his heart than that to the Paris monastery. 
And his reception in the country was of a different and much 
more solemn character, the Recluses receiving him almost 
as one risen from the dead. Through Fontaine we have a 
graphic picture of Le Maitre's throwing himself at the feet 
of the Abb6, of the latter's raising up his disciple, and embrac- 
ing him tenderly, and of their subsequent exhaustive talk 
on spiritual and temporal matters. ^ 

As he was leaving, St. Cyran expressed his admiration 
of the Desert, and remarked that he would reproach Mere 
Angelique for ever having left it. 

But alas ! it was not intended that the Master should 
remain much longer with his followers, and even his last 
months were not destined to be quiet or tranquil ones. A 
storm aroused by the publication of one of his prison works 
— a little catechism called *' Familiar Theology," threat- 
ened again to engulf him and Port-Royal. Writing to M^re 
Angelique on the subject, the Ahh6 expressed his intention 
of upholding what he had written, saying that the weak are 
often more to be feared than the wicked, and that he would 

^ Lancelot, MSmoires, i. p. 211. 

2 In describing the joy of the Solitaires at seeing St. Cyran again, Fontaine 
puts in a very human touch by confessing that " la joie sans doute qu'on 
avait de revoir un tel homme, quoique incroyable en sol et presque infinie, 
ne laissait pas d'etre temp^ree par une frayeur secrite qui faisait rentrer 
tout le monde dans le fond de son cceur" (Fontaine, MSmoires, i. p. 161). 



86 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

prefer seeing the whole monastery of Port -Royal destroyed 
rather than its discipline.^ 

Although friends at Court averted from the writer of the 
"Familiar Theology" for a time the consequences of his 
treatise, not long afterward the saintly Abbe was stricken 
down by apoplexy, and died in eleven hours. 

To St. Cyran, Lancelot chronicled, death was a thing to 
be taken standing, his maxim being that a Christian should die 
at his labours. And this he literally did, for on the night 
before he passed away he was working hard, dictating to 
Lancelot a few so-called '* Christian Thoughts,*' and also, 
strangely enough, what he termed " Some Points on Death." 

This same faithful chronicler has given us a beautifvd 
account of his master after death 

*' Gazing at the body,*' he says, " which was still in the 
same position in which Death had left it, I found it so full 
of majesty, and with so grave an expression, that I coidd 
not weary of admiring it, and I imagined that in this state 
he would have still been capable of inspiring fear in the most 
passionate of his enemies, could they have seen him." ^ 

In his will St. Cyran had given M. d'Andilly his heart, 
on condition that his old friend retire from the world. 
M. Le Maitre begged to have as his portion those hands so 
pure and holy — how many times they had been raised to 
God, what truths written, and still they were fighting for 
the Church when God called their owner to Himself ! ^ 

The rest of^the remains were then taken to the Church of 
St. Jacques du Haut Pas, where, amidst a tremendous gather- 
ing of bishops, archbishops, and nearly every prelate of Paris, 
the burial took place, St. Cyran being at the moment revered 
as a great saint and savant, and Port-Royal itself not yet 
having come under the opprobrium which was later to weigh 
it down. 

St. Jacques du Haut Pas was indeed a fitting resting- 
place for the mortal remains of him to whom it embodied 
an ideal of church architecture, the rule for which was simple 
in the extreme : 

*' It suffices," he said, " if there be naught that is shocking 
in our style." 

1 Lancelot, Mimoires, i. pp. 204-223, 2 /^^-^^ j p^ 252. ^ jbi^^ j. p, 257. 



DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 87 

Later on, M. Hamon expressed the general Port- 
Royal belief that beauty of church architecture 
distracted the penitent from the inner emotions, when 
he described some people as being obliged to close 
their eyes while praying in churches which were too 
lovely. 1 

While St. fitienne du Mont, back of the Pantheon, in which 
Racine, Pascal, Le Maitre, and De Saci now lie buried, is still 
a wonder of Renaissance architecture, in which harmony 
and beauty result from line and form, whose very stones 
are impregnated with reverence and piety, and where there 
reigns a mysterious loveliness emanating from stained glass 
of wonderful lights and tints, St. Jacques is as sombre as 
the doctrine which shuts out from salvation all but the Elect. 
Naught but the principles of the Reform could have con- 
ceived this edifice, so bare of elegance of form, so devoid of 
the intoxication of line. On its walls are few ornaments 
of any kind ; its sculptures are poor ; its chapels reveal but 
a few paintings of indifferent merit ; while the crudeness of 
daylight has full licence to penetrate unabashed through 
windows which lack the magic of stained glass. In it even 
the most imaginative mind could find no suggestion either 
of holiness or of pagan beauty, but would be forced to derive 
its spiritual food out of the wells of its own righteousness. 
Yet it displays artistic negation rather than distinct artistic 
crime. And in those days it stood on the very " hearth- 
stone of the spiritual life of Paris," ^ in that quarter which 
contained most of the religious houses of the city — the Visita- 
tion, the Ursulines, the Feuillantines, St. Magloire, the Carmel, 
the Benedictins Anglais, Val de Grace, the Capuchins, Port- 
Royal. Now, St. Jacques du Haut Pas stands in a 
land of memories, in which almost forgotten names awaken 
visions in the heart of but the stray passer-by. Even its 
parishioners ignore its ancient history, although unconsciously 
they still retain its aroma. 

For a time, the public considered St. Jacques the depository 

1 " Saint- Augustin a bien raison de dire que les lieux qui contentent les 
sens nous remplissent de distraction . . . et cela est si vrai, qu'il y a plusieurs 
personnes qui sont obligees de fermer les yeux lorsqu' elles prient dans les 
eglises qui sont trop belles" (Jean Hamon, TraiU de la Solitude, p. loi). 

2 Andre Hallays, PeUrinage de Port-Royal, p. 31. 



S8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of something very worthy of reverence. As one prelate 
expressed it the day of the funeral : 

" M. le Cure, you have here a great treasure and precious 
charge." ^ 

And, accordingly, from that day the tomb of the illustrious 
Jansenist became the centre for prayers, masses, and 
pilgrimages. Every Saturday, priests from Port-Royal came 
to say Mass near it, and many persons of quality journeyed 
all the way out to the shrine in the Faubourg St. Jacques 
to read his epitaph and to do him honour. ^ 

Thus died the greatest man of Port-Royal's history, and 
with him perished in a great measure the original meaning 
of the message he and Jansenius had endeavoured to transmit 
to the world about them — a message which had in it no enmity 
to the Catholic Church, but a great exhortation to the reform 
and purification of the spirit of religion. 

In course of time the memory of St. Cyran was attainted 
by those forces of hatred and envy which, begun before his 
death, continued long after the annihilation of Port-Royal 
was effected. Mistaken zealots cast upon him the slur of 
heresy and accused him of wishing to bring schism into the 
Church, ignoring the fact that his horror of any departure 
from the dogma as he understood it was such that, whenever 
he even took a heretical book into his hands, it was his 
habit to exorcize the evil spirit within it by the sign of the 
Cross, believing that the demon really resided therein. ^ 

Moreover one of the very last acts of St. Cyran's life had 
been work on an extensive volume against Calvinism. The 
plan of this attack had been suggested to the writer by M. 
Charpentier's account of the state of religion in certain parts 
of France where Calvinism was rapidly gaining ground. Un- 
happily the execution of his scheme was first prevented by 
Richelieu, then by the arresting finger of Death.* If, as 

1 Du Fosse, MSmoires, i. p. ii8. ^ Rapin, Histoire du JansSnisme, p. 507. 

3 " One should never read the books of Calvin or other heretics," said 
St. Cyran, "without previously having exorcized them, because these books 
have a secret malignity, which might surprise the strongest, if they were not 
careful to recommend themselves to God in reading them" (Lancelot, 
Mimoires, i. p. 226). 

*The book against the heretics was not finished. Singlin said to the 
bishops who came to the funeral, that M. de St. Cyran was a David who had 



DEATH OF JANSENIUS AND ST. CYRAN 89 

Bossuet said, " A heretic is one who has an opinion," then 
St. Cyran was a heretic, not otherwise. 

Although the epitaph composed by the friends of the Abbe 
de St. Cyran disappeared in course of time from the tomb- 
stone in the Church of St. Jacques du Haut Pas, its place 
there is still marked. The epitaph itself was strangely reserved 
as compared with those written by other of the Port-Royal 
epitaphists, but in a few words it summed up the Jansenist 
idea of the man who was their Jeader and their ideal to the 
end. It reads : 

" Here lies Jean du Verger de Hauranne, Abb^ de St. 
Cyran. He united — ^which is very rare — knowledge with the 
most profound humility. He had the most ardent love and 
zeal for the unity of the Church, the tradition of the Fathers, 
and the ancient truth. From the Catholic Church, unique 
object of his entire devotion, he wrote against heretics of 
our times. Profoundly regretted by all the French clergy 
and honest men, he died the nth October 1643, aged sixty- 
two." 

gathered together the materials for the building, but that a Solomon would 
be found to finish it (Lancelot, M^moires, i. p. 227). 



CHAPTER IV 

A TRIO OF DfiVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS 
I. La Princesse de Gu^men^ 

" Quittons ces vanites, lassons-nous de les suivre; 
C'est Dieu qui nous fait vivre, 
C'est Dieu qu'il faut aimer." 

^ Franqois de Malherbe 

THAT keen observer of human nature, Saint-fivremond, 
clearly recognized and analysed the motives of many 
galantes femmes of the day in going into religion, and 
there exists a curious letter ^ from him to a friend who is think- 
ing of taking such a step, in which he urges her to examine 
her soul carefully lest she be one of those to whom 

" God is a new lover who consoles for what one has lost " ; 
or to whom 

" Piety is a matter of calculation, and the mystery of a 
new spiritual influence.** 

On the background of the Paris monastery in the earliest 
days the portraits of three distinguished women are painted 
ineff aceably. Each had her own history of gallantry, tragedy, 
and sorrow ; each seemed to have embraced the penitential 
life first through repentance for sins, secondly as a substitute 
and indemnity for coquetry. With the entrance of penitence 
into their hearts, the craving for excitement had not been 
extinguished, and as penitence precluded gallantry in the 

^ This letter was found in MS. at the Bibliotheque Nationale in the same 
package as that of Pascal's Discours de V Amour, and is quoted by M. Victor 
Giraud in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1907. It is now published in 
the CEuvres Meslees de Saint-fevremond (London, Jacob Tonson), tome i. 
p. 125. 

90 



THE PRINCESSE DE GU£m£N£ 91 

usual sense, they were forced to derive from religion its 
only agitation, a continual crucifying of the emotions and 
desires. 

Mere Angelique had not much faith in the discretion of 
either of the mondaines, who, on certain days of the week, 
were in the habit of making retreats at Port-Royal de Paris. 
She therefore dictated not only their prayers and penitential 
exercises, but the persons of the monastery with whom they 
might have converse. The story is told by one of the old 
historians, that on one occasion these three grandes dames 
elected to spend Christmas at Port-Royal. After dinner. Mere 
Angelique suddenly bethought her that her penitents had been 
talking together a very long time. Leaving the company she 
was in, she hastened to separate them, explaining that they 
would harm each other : 

" A head-dress, a collar, or a fashion must inevitably crop 
into the conversation ; one must try to banish these devilries, 
which should not be allowed in Christian intercourse." ^ 

The first devote to associate herself with Port-Royal de 
Paris in the early days was, strangely enough, the most 
worldly-minded of the three, Anne de Rohan, Princesse de 
Guem6n6. Anne de Rohan had been thrust very early upon 
the world through a marriage at the age of twelve (by papal 
dispensation) with her own cousin, Louis de Rohan, Prince de 
Guemene, second son of the Due de Montbazon, and brother 
of the notorious Duchesse de Chevreuse. 

Tallemant des Reaux was impudent enough to say that 
without the order on his breast the Prince de Guemene might 
have been taken for an *' arracheur des dents." ^ At the time 
of the marriage, his sister, not yet Madame de Chevreuse, but 
wife of the reigning favourite of Louis xiii, the Connetable de 
Luynes, had already acquired a tremendous ascendancy over 
Anne of Austria, who had come to France only the year before, 
and who at this time was a timid, distrustful creature of un- 
certain and variable temper. ^ 

The Montbazon trio : Madame de Montbazon, the young 
and beautiful stepmother of the Prince and his sister, Madame 

1 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. p. 205. 

2 Historiettes, vol. vi. p. 141. 

^ Saint-Simon, M^moives, vol. v. p. 244. 



92 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

de Chevreuse, and the Princesse de Gu6m^n^. were kindred 
spirits — all three fascinating, all three intelligent, all three 
galantes. And as they were always together, Anne of Austria's 
Court was not devoid of excitement. 

Of Madame de Guemene, Saint-Gabriel, a contemporary 
writer, speaks in a curious book called Merite des Dames, as 
" The Inimitable " : 

" She, the Day, the Light, are the loveliest works of 
Nature." i 

Her admirers were legion, and the Prince, popularly sup- 
posed to be a " marl complaisant," rather encouraged, as 
Saint-Simon leads us to believe, the Montbazon trio in 
their frivolous life. Being thus attractive, Madame de 
Guem6ne was the object of the deep jealousy, not only of 
the grandes dames of the Court, but of Madame de Chevreuse 
and the Queen herself. Madame de Motteville tells the story 
that on the days when there was a ball at the Palace, and 
the fair sex was pluming itself to look as bewitching as pos- 
sible, the Queen and her ally, Madame de Chevreuse, to avoid 
the shame of being judged less charming than the Princess, 
resorted to artifices to prevent her from attending the assembly. 
Thus, meeting Madame de Guemene on her arrival, and finding 
her glowing with loveliness, they would hasten to tell her 
she was looking very ill. Whereupon, without consulting her 
mirror, she would rush away and hide, leaving the field to 
them.2 

Perhaps the Princesse de Guemen6's natural disposition to 
gallantry had been heightened by the very atmosphere of the 
house in which she lived, the Hotel de Guemene in the Place 
Royale having formerly been owned and occupied by that 
most unfortunate and short-lived courtesane of the period, 
Marion Delorme.^ Yet history may be trusted to right itself. 
To-day the memory of both the courtesane and the lady of high 
condition has been eradicated by the refulgence of the poet, 
and the Hotel de Guemene is now pointed out in the modern 
Place des Vosges as the home of Victor Hugo. 

It was said that those who loved Madame de Guemen6 

1 p. 298. 

2 Madame de Motteville, MSmoires, i. p. 39. 

' Saint-Simon, MSmoires (Boislisle ed,), vol, v. p. 242. 



i 



THE PRINCESSE DE GU£m£N£ 93 

were fated to some terrible end, and this would seem to be true 
from the fact that of four men who loved her devotedly, three 
— the Comte de Bouteville, the Due de Montmorency, and 
Francois Auguste de Thou — died upon the scaffold, while 
the fourth, the Comte de Soissons, was killed by his own 
hand, though involuntarily. Added to this list, her second 
son, the Chevalier de Rohan, afterward met with a similar 
Nemesis. 

Lancelot chronicles that this great lady 

" gave herself to the Lord the summer following the year 
1639, and that God used M. d'Andilly as the instrument to 
touch her." ^ 

The attitude of St. Cjnran's " Recruiter of Souls," as 
M. d'Andilly called himself, toward women, both in general and 
in particular, had always been that of admiration and respect. 
In one of his letters he avows his belief that women may serve 
the Church as well by their example as men by their doctrine. ^ 
Yet he had a peculiarity which Madame de Sevigne, writing 
retrospectively of the old days at Pomponne, humorously 
remarked : 

" We chaffed Bonhomme d'Andilly because he would rather 
save a soul which was in a beautiful body than another." ^ 

The fact was that with all the aesthete's love for beauty for 
its own sake, M. d'Andilly was never quite able to disassociate 
his delight in physical loveliness from his religious enthusiasm. 
It was no wonder, therefore, that he was especially zealous in 
his spiritual ministrations to one so young and marvellously 
blessed with the dangerous gift of beauty as the Princesse de 
Guemene. Moreover, to win her to the Lord, would not 
only redound to his own credit, but be of great moment to 
the Society of Port- Royal. 

The story goes that, paying the Princess a visit at her 
country house of Compurai, M. d'Andilly found her just 
coming home from Mass, where she acknowledged to have 

* Memoires, i. p. 324. 

' " Les femmes peuvent aussi bien servir a I'eglise par leur exemple que 
les hommes par leur doctrine" (15 Mai 1640). 
' Lettre ^ Madame de Grignan, 19 Aoiit, 1676. 



94 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

spent her time in imagining a new head-dress, radiating happi- 
ness, self-satisfaction, and carelessness so flamboyantly, that 
he was alarmed at her paganism, her content in temporal 
matters : 

" Ah ! " he exclaimed, " I would you might be as rich 
in your soul as in these outward things." 

These words, following upon the disasters which had happened 
to those she loved, struck so sudden a terror to the heart of 
his listener, that her conscience was touched at last, and she 
confided to M. d'Andilly her desire to seek solace for her 
frightened soul in the consolation of religion. 

News of this conversion made a tremendous stir in the 
world. Knowing Madame de Guemene's galante history, her 
old associates were very sceptical as to her sincerity. 

The Necrologe of Port-Royal relates that hitherto 

" the world had pleased her, and she had pleased the world," ^ 

but that God sent sorrows, such as the death of her four 
cavaliers, to induce her to retire within herself. At first 
M. d'Andilly hardly believed this miracle could happen. Yet, 
he reflected, all is possible to God, so, as St. Cyran was in 
prison and removed from possibility of direct personal in- 
fluence, he appealed to Mere Angelique for advice with regard 
to his new penitent. She on her part then wrote to the 
Prisoner of Vincennes. 

Like others, St. Cyran was not ignorant of Madame de 
Guemene's moral record. Repljdng to Mere Angelique, 
therefore, he confessed that it was difficult for him to prescribe 
for the lady of whom she wrote. 

The condition of this person, he said, seemed to him as the 
spark of God's grace illumined on a frozen pavement, where 
the winds blow from all sides : 

" If God has lighted it," he wrote, " there is reason to 
hope that the spark will not be extinguished by the ice and 
the winds." 2 

At length, however, he was persuaded to write to the 
Princess herself to examine into the state of her soul. Thus, 

1 ii. p. III. 

* Lettre a la Mdre Angelique, 12 Oct. 1639. 



THE PRINCESSE DE GU£m£n£ 95 

as her conversion occurred in 1639, the very first of those 
wonderful L^^^/'^s Chrestiennes written from prison was addressed 
to her, or, as he expressed it, 

*' To a Person, or Lady of high Condition." ^ 

At Port-Royal, there was a tremulous joy over this black 
sheep who had come into their fold. It was too great an 
event to be talked of lightly. So they all joined in prayer 
for the persistence of the worldly woman in the paths of 
righteousness. Singlin afterward confessed to Lancelot that 
if this grande dame persevered, her conversion would be the 
greatest miracle of grace that had happened in the Church 
for a very long time.^ In her anxiety. Mere Angelique 
wrote letter after letter to M. d'Andilly, enjoining the 
greatest caution and deliberation in his treatment of his 
new convert. 

" We must pray to God for her," she wrote finally. " I 
think that, according to M. de St. Cyran's prediction, she will 
suffer greatly. The Devil and the World will not tolerate 
the affront she makes them, without avenging themselves ; 
and the great force God is giving her, shows that He is pre- 
paring her for the combat." ^ 

Mere Angelique was right. Both the Devil and the World 
were determined to have their revenge, and they had settled 
on the Coadjutor of Paris, afterward Cardinal Retz, as their 
agent. They could not have chosen a more competent person 
for the purpose than this strange prelate, who avowed quite 
frankly that he led a life of gallantry in order to free his mind 
of the melancholy which his profession nourished in the 
bottom of his soul. 

In his Memotres, written long afterward, the Cardinal 
describes the two forces ruling Madame de Guemene at her 
conversion, and which were represented severally in his mind 
by himself and M. d'Andilly : 

" Just fifteen days before this adventure [one of his own 
gallant escapades] the Devil appeared to Madame de Guemene, 
and he came often evoked by the conjuries of M. d'Andilly, 
who forced him, I think, to inspire fear in his fair penitent, 

^ Lettre du 30 Oct. 1639. 2 Lancelot, Memoives, i. p. 324. 

^ Lettre du 16 Nov. 1639. 



96 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

in whom he was more in love than I, but in God and quite 
spiritually. 

" On my side," the gallant Churchman went on to explain, 
" I evoked a demon which appeared to her under a more 
benignant and agreeable form ; he took her at the end of 
six months away from Port -Royal, where she made from 
time to time escapades rather than retreats." ^ 

From the first, Madame de Guemene never quite let go of 
the world. Having taken a house in the precincts of Port- 
Royal de Paris, she was in the habit of spending at least one 
day a week in the silence and quiet of the monastery. Her 
home was beside the church, above the sacristy, making one 
side of the cloister. Here she educated her youngest son, the 
Chevalier de Rohan. 

But while retaining her apartment at Port-Royal de Paris, 
she also indulged her mundane luxurious tastes to the full 
at her home in the Place Royale. Visiting her here one day, the 
Prince de Conde remarked its general atmosphere of material 
comfort : 

" Well, Madame," he exclaimed, " the Jansenists are not 
then as disagreeable as it is said they are, since all this adjusts 
itself with devotion ? Here is the most beautiful place in 
the world ; I think there must be great pleasure in praying 
to God here." 2 

Unfortunately St. Cyran was only too right in his pre- 
monition that the spark of God's grace vouchsafed to this 
*' lady of high condition " might soon be extinguished by the 
ice and winds of a wicked world, for even the Necrologe of 
Port-Royal, writing the epitaph of the Princess, had to admit 
that, although she lived more than forty-five years after her 
conversion, the latter part of her life did not correspond with the 
hopes engendered by her short period of repentance. For 
after some time she seems to have given up all pretence of 
piety, and thrown herself back again into secular and mundane 
ways. 

Yet, strange to say, even while casting off the restraint of 
Port-Royal teaching, the Princess never quite severed her con- 
nection with the community, and there are a number of letters 
from Mdre Angelique thanking the kind patron for gifts sent 

1 Retz, MSmoires, vol. i. p. 129. , 

" ' Barthelemy, Les Amis de Madame de SahU, p. 21 1. 



: THE PRINCESSE DE GU£m£n£ 97 

the monastery, for asylum offered the nuns in the Gu^m^n6 
estate in Brittany, etc. After 1648, silence intervenes, and 
it was not until six years later that Mere Angelique divulged 
the secret of this taciturnity. Then to the Queen of Poland 
she wrote that the " poor lady," as she calls her, had much 
degenerated, and that she had returned to the world. La 
pauvre dame is not, the good Abbess continues, as bad 
as she is painted, although that she should be thus de- 
famed is but a just judgment of God for her infidelity. 
After relating the fact that Madame de Guemene still always 
attends sermon at Port-Royal de Paris, and that recently she 
has seemed touched, Mere Angelique concludes with one of 
her own maxims : 

'' II est tres facile de descendre, and tres difficile de re- 
monter. Mais Dieu peut tout, et sa misericorde est infinie.*' ^ 

History does not relate that the Prince de Guemene's 
death in 1667 affected his wife very greatly. That her eldest 
son, who some years after her husband's death became Due de 
Montbazon, had long been hopelessly insane, and was incar- 
cerated in a Belgian convent, touched her more nearly. 
But all her heart was centred in her youngest-born, the 
debonnair Chevalier de Rohan, called the best-made and 
handsomest man of his time. 

But alas ! the flaws in her idol were the very ones she 
had caused by her indulgence. Although she had selected 
Port-Royal's most pious ecclesiastic, M. Singlin, as preceptor 
for her son, she had not allowed that good man sufficient 
liberty as regarded discipline, and Louis de Rohan was conse- 
quently a mass of contradictions. Endowed with a brilliant 
mind, it sometimes seemed as if he had none. Possessing 
a fund of haughtiness and pride, and capable of acting courage- 
ously on occasion, he could nevertheless descend to the weakest 
and falsest of behaviour. 

A plot in which the Chevalier de Rohan was implicated to 
excite an insurrection in Normandy, and to deliver over 
Quilleboeuf to the Dutch and Spaniards, being discovered 
on the 26th November 1674, De Rohan and his confederates 

^ " It is very easy to descend, and very difficult to rise again. But all is 
possible to God, and His mercy is infinite" (Lettre a la Reine de Pologne, 
21 Mai 1654). 

7 



98 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

were tried, convicted of treason, and on the 27th beheaded. 
Up to the last, the Chevalier had not thought to die, for his 
intention with regard to the Dutch and Spaniards was to 
secure their money, and then not to keep his word about 
delivering over the town. On going to trial, he was so con- 
fident this could be proved, that he appeared on the sellette 
in a new suit of clothes, and with " the best face in the world." ^ 
Like those others who had loved Anne de Rohan, this 
son's fate was so tragic as to draw forth from the insouciante 
Madame de Sevigne the philosophical reflection : 

" II faut faire reflection sur Tetat de ceux qui sont plus 
malheureux que nous, pour souffrir patiemment nos disgraces." ^ 

Thus, in order that Madame de Guemene might finally 
be brought back into the paths of righteousness, God had 
to send His greatest scourging, attacking her in that most 
vulnerable part, a mother's tenderness. And Sorrow, of 
which there is none greater, was the lever which raised her 
from the depths back into the light of Grace. 

Strangely enough, in a last picture of Madame de Gue- 
mene, we are reminded of St. Evremond's devote, who really 
wanted to be saved, but who, too weak to persist, failed 
on the road to holiness. Even after definitely separating 
herself from Port-Royal, and while walking in the ways of 
iniquity, this beautiful sinner could not help every now and 
then casting a longing eye backward to that pure and lovely 
refuge of peace from which she had voluntarily exiled herself. 
The World had conquered, but she was not content. 

1 Le Fare, Memoires, tome Ixv. p. 215. 

2 " We must think of the state of those more unhappy than ourselves, 
in order to patiently suffer our own afflictions " (Lettre a Madame de Grignan, 
15 Octobre 1674). 



CHAPTER V 

A TRIO OF DfiVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS 
II. Marie de Gonzague 

" Croirez-vous obliger tout le monde k se taire ? 
Centre la medisance il n'est point de rempart." 

MoLifeRE, Le Misanthrope 

ALTHOUGH also a galante femme, Marie de Gonzague, 
daughter of Charles, Due de Nevers, afterwards sovereign 
Duke of Mantua, was quite a different type from the 
Princesse de Guemene. Her life-history was remarkable 
for its " ups and downs." Tallemant says : 

" On a remarque que jamais personne n'a eu tant de 
hausses qui baissent dans la vie que la Princesse Marie.'* ^ 

Many historians testify to her beauty, and one memoirist in 
particular — albeit prejudiced — Michel de MaroUes, goes so 
far as to say that she might be called The Glory of Her Age, 
both by the comeliness of her person and the admirable 
qualities of her mind.^ Reporting this eulogy, and comment- 
ing upon the Dante-like devotion of Marolles for the Princess, 
to whom for twenty years he acted the part of " familiar 
man of letters, Latinist in Ordinary, Secretary, and Librarian,'* 
Sainte-Beuve classifies the Princess herself as inferior in in- 
tellectual attainments both to Madame de Guemene, Madame 
de Sable, and her own sister, Anne de Gonzague, Princesse 
Palatine. He admits, however, that she was endowed with 
those three wonderful characteristics, grace, liberality, and a 
charm which operated insensibly on her admirers. 

The tragedy of the early part of her existence was a sojourn 
of fifteen days in the prison of Vincennes, where Marie de 

^ Historiettes, iv. p. i8i. ^ Michel de Marolles, M^moires, i, p. loi, 

99 



100 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

M6decis, on a suspicion that Gaston, her second son, seriously 
wanted to marry the poor Princess of Mantua, had her incar- 
cerated. On the Queen Mother's disgrace shortly afterwards, 
the liberated Princess returned to Paris and endeavoured 
to forget her disappointement and chagrin in a life filled with 
pleasure. This she found among her many friends, and in 
the society of all the beaux-esprits and gallants of the Ram- 
bouillet and other Paris gatherings of the kind. Her own 
salon at Nevers, MaroUes describes as especially delightful 
in point of conversation, where innocent raillery alternated 
with " the sweet and serious,'* malicious gossip and licence 
of any kind being tabooed. 

This life, though delightful, was also very expensive, and, 
becoming involved in financial difficulties, to free herself 
Marie de Gonzague was tempted to listen favourably to the 
suit of the Marquis de Cinq Mars, who, though Grand Ecuyer 
and reigning favourite of Louis xiii, was not|^her equal in 
rank. Some memoirists assert that she accepted money 
from Cinq Mars, but that is probably only malicious gossip. 
Through her. Cinq Mars aspired to the office of Connetable 
de France, and as Richelieu was opposed to his ambition, 
the Equerry was foolish enough to join in a plot with Gaston 
d'Orl^ans against the Prime Minister. The plot discovered 
by the ever-astute Richelieu, Cinq Mars, with his friend De 
Thou, was tried and executed. 

Through the mediation of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, 
Richelieu's niece, Marie de Gonzague succeeded in recover- 
ing her letters to her former lover, but the affair could not 
fail to leak out in certain circles, and discredited her greatly 
for a time, especially as one of the notes found in the cassette 
of Cinq Mars ended with these words : 

" Mon cher Ecuyer, travaillez a vous faire Connetable 
pour etre digne de moi." ^ 

In the depressed state of mind in which this sad experience 
left her, Marie de Gonzague turned to religion, and sought 
the friendship of Mere Angelique. Her introduction to Port- 
Royal was both momentous and tragic, for, intending to put 
herself under the direction of St. Cyran, and going to the 
Paris monastery for that purpose, the loth October 1643, 

1 Amelot cje la Houssaye, M&moires, ii. p. 291. 



I 



MARIE DE GONZAGUE loi 

she found herself m the midst of his funeral obsequies, and 
assisted, an uninvited guest at the agony and sorrow of his 
devoted Solitaires and penitents, joining in that weeping 
crowd of mourners of all ages, sexes, and conditions.^ 

This event did not chill her religious fervour, for, taking 
a little lodging at Port-Royal de Paris, like Madame de Gue- 
mene and Madame de Sable, she spent whole days there every 
week, often, as we have said, to the evident uneasiness of Mere 
Angelique. Like them, too, she was glad to be under the 
spiritual direction of St. Cjnran's successor, M. Singlin. For 
some time her piety was admirable. She spent many hours 
in prayer and meditation, heard Mass regularly, and even 
fasted so rigorously that her household trembled for her 
health, imtil they remarked that fasting seemed to agree with 
her marvellously. 2 

It was not intended by Fate, however, that a princess of 
her rank and accomplishments should rest for ever under 
the quiet shadow of convent walls, nor was she devout enough 
to be able to resist that greatest of temptations — earthly 
glory. In 1644, Vladislas iv, King of Poland, who before his 
own marriage had much admired Marie de Gonzague, losing 
his wife, Cecile Renee d'Autriche, applied to the King of 
France for the hand of the Princess of Mantua.^ 

When asked if she would like to see a portrait of her 
prospective husband, Marie de Gonzague replied that it 
was not necessary, as she was not marrying the King but his 
crown ! 

All Paris was excited over the royal alliance, and Talle- 
mant exercised his humour by telling of the wedding in the 
Chapel of the Palais Royal, when every consideration due 
a princess of the blood was heaped upon the Queen elect, 
Anne of Austria, as a delicate attention, even ceding to her, 
for the one day, precedence of herself. But Marie de Gon- 
zague's triumph was truly complete only when she found 
herself taking precedence of the man who had once scorned 
her : Gaston d'Orleans. 

The Grande Mademoiselle, his daughter, inheriting a dis- 
like for the Princess of Mantua, and jealous as well, apropos 

1 Lancelot, Mimoires, i. p. 259. 

2 Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal. 

' Jean Le Laboureur, Relation du Voyage de la Reyne de Pologne, 1647. 



102 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of the festivities and rejoicings, remarked in her Memoirs, 
that 

" quite enough people were bored by this royalty." ^ 

A few days after the marriage ceremony, the new Queen 
retired to Port-Royal de Paris to recover from the fatigue of 
the fetes ; and, M. de MaroUes tells us, 

'' In order to regain her usual piety.'* ^ 

The correspondence with Mere Angelique, which gives the 
connection of Marie de Gonzague with Port-Royal a unique 
character, begins from the moment of the Queen of Poland's 
arrival in her new home, and continues for sixteen years. 
Through the over two hundred letters still in existence, we are 
enabled to follow the Queen's life in Poland almost day by day, 
throughout every vicissitude ; and the whole story of Port- 
Royal's first period of persecution is graphically unrolled in Mere 
Angelique's letters, written with no suspicion of the fate which 
awaited her utterances, and full of her characteristic force 
and frankness. Indeed, it is principally through them that 
an insight may be gleaned of the most intimate thoughts of 
their unconscious writer — the most modest and retiring of 
women. Mere Agnes was in the plot to preserve these im- 
portant epistles. In 1653 she wrote from Paris to a sister of 
the Convent of the Incarnation : 

" Not one of the letters to the Queen escaped us while 
Notre Mere was at Port-Royal des Champs. I fear we cannot 
do our project so easily at present, because she writes late. 
There are several watchers established for the purpose." ^ 

After Mere Angelique's death, the Queen corresponded 
regularly with Mere Agnes, who tried to take the place of her 
sister as guide. Unfortimately, very few of these letters have 
been preserved to us. The explanation is that Mere Agnes, 
great and beloved as she certainly was in the monastery, 
did not command the reverence awakened by the sterner 
Angelique. No one took the trouble to spy upon her and 
abstract copies of her letters for future publication. Doubtless 

^ M&moires de Mile, de Montpensier, i. p. 133. 

2 Michel de MaroUes, Memoires, i. p. 310. 

^ a la Soeur Dorothee de I'lncarnation Le Conte. i^r Aout, 1653. 



MARIE DE GONZAGUE 103 

by this neglect the world has lost many interesting human 
documents, a supposition which has become a conviction 
through the edition of Mere Agnes's letters published by M. 
Faugere. The eyes of Port-Royal were concentrated on Mere 
Angelique, and they therefore neglected to prepare her sister's 
" dossier de sainte," or certificate of saintship, in her lifetime, 
as they had done for the other. ^ 

The strong advice on the religious life which the letters of 
Mere Angelique to the Queen of Poland contain, must have 
borne rich fruit in the conduct of the recipient, ^ for, to emphasize 
her piety, the Necrologe relates that the Queen of Poland 
habitually wore a cilice, and that her charity " was truly 
royal." As time went on, there was full need of Mere 
Angelique's religious and spiritual solace, for in the royal 
palace Marie de Gonzague continued the alternate ups and 
downs of her former existence. Mere Angelique had foreseen 
this, and in one of her first letters warned her friend that 
in piety lay the greatest strength ; on it alone depended 
happiness. All the rest, she wrote, 

*' is but nothingness ; this pomp and grandeur which surrounds 
them, but like the smoke of perfumes agreeable to the sense, 
which evaporate in a moment." ^ 

The first event that happened was the death in 1649 ^^ 
Vladislas iv, followed by his widow's marriage to the new King, 
Jean Casimir, her brother-in-law. Of this union. Mere 
Angelique wrote : 

" We see that the changes which happen to your Majesty 
makes no alteration whatever in your disposition and extreme 
goodness to us : which obliges us more and more to take part 
in your interests, and to pity you much in this new engage- 
ment." * 

Yet in spite of Mere Angelique's fears, Marie de Gonzague 
seems to have been very united with her second husband. 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 575, 

^ "She received my letters with joy," chronicled Mere Angelique, "and 
her Confessor wrote me that her household was ravished when she heard 
from me, for they perceived afterwards that she acted more gently, 
moderately, and charitably ; that she pardoned faults committed against 
her, that she was more devout and restrained." 

3 Lettre du 27 Juillet 1646. * Lettre du 12 Mai 1649. 



104 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Directly afterwards, the felicity and prosperity of existence 
at Varsovie so frightened her, used as she was to a balance of 
good and evil, that she asked her confidante to pray to God 
that this exceeding content be not followed by some great 
misfortune.^ 

Calamity was not long in coming to the house of Poland. 
First of all, the Queen lost her only children, two little girls ; 
then the pest developed throughout the kingdom, and fierce 
wars with the Cossacks and Swedes kept the whole realm in 
a state of continual fear and distress. 

Notwithstanding these terrible disturbances, the bene- 
volence and kindness of the Queen to her subjects was ever 
active. In the freezing winter, she gave clothes and fuel to 
the poor, and had immense fires lighted in the public squares 
by which they might warm themselves. She also brought over 
from France Fathers of the Mission to instruct her subjects, 
and sisters of charity to nurse the sick and dying, and to 
educate young girls, whose future she herself provided for. It 
seemed as if, in that strange, cold, northern country, the French 
Princess tried to inaugurate a Port-Royal of her own. 

In return for Mere Angelique's advice and counsel, which 
she craved unceasingly. Queen Marie displayed unparalleled 
generosity toward the dear friends who had always given her 
so fully of their spiritual goods. When persecution was 
threatening against Port-Royal, Mere Angelique wrote to thank 
the Queen for asylum offered in Poland, not only to the nuns 
and their leader, but to the Hermits as well.^ At another time, 
Marie de Gonzague wrote at Mere Angelique's request to the 
Pope, with whom she was influential, to warn him not to 
believe malicious tales against the nuns and Solitaires. ^ 

When grain was dear in France, she first sent 8000 livres 
of Polish wheat to alleviate the misery about her dear convent, 
then, later on, she donated 2000 livres in money to the Soli- 
taires for a new building at Port-Royal des Champs, presented 
them with a magnificent pyx, some cloth of gold, and vessels 
of silver for their church.* 

Indeed, this generous Queen would willingly have given 
away all she had in the world. When her friends remon- 

^ Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes, vol. iv. p. 189. 

2 Lettre du 20 Mai 1655. 

^ Besoigne, Histoire de Port-Royal, i. p. 207. * Ibid. 



MARIE DE GONZAGUE 105 

strated with her on her prodigaUty, Marie de Gonzague 
replied : 

" I do not wish to amass anything, for, no matter what 
property I have, if I should become a widow, I should always 
have enough to be received by Mere Angelique at Port -Royal 
des Champs." 

Hearing of this remark, Le Maitre commented on it admiringly 
to his aunt. Characteristically the latter shook her head 
over the wisdom of receiving a Queen among the nuns of Port- 
Royal. For, while Mere Angelique always firmly believed in 
the virtue of Port-Royal's benefactor and friend, and steadily 
refused to credit any of the tales current as to her early indis- 
cretions, ^ neither the Queen of Poland's generosity, nor her 
laudable attempt to conform to Port-Royal's sternest ideas of 
discipline in the matter of personal habits and luxuries, served 
to change her deep-rooted conviction with regard to people 
of condition. Such grand personages, she said, were apt to 
cause slackness and weakness in a monastery. Fortunately, 
therefore, the Abbess of Port-Royal was never confronted with 
the necessity of a decision in the matter, she herself being 
the first to pass away. Yet that the stern moralist had a 
strong regard for the Queen is ever apparent in her letters. 

In any case, the monastery had much for which to thank 
Marie de Gonzague, and in its circles she was greatly beloved 
and sincerely mourned, when seven years after Mere Angelique's 
death she followed her friend to that kingdom in which both 
had so long been laying up treasures for themselves. Though 
one of the Great of the Earth, and born subject to God's anger, 
Marie de Gonzague too was a *' Friend of the Truth," and as 
such belonged by spiritual affinity to Port-Royal. 

* Le Maitre repeats Mere Angelique's assertion in this respect. He says 
(Memoires et Relations, p. 212) : " She told me that she knew certainly that 
God had always kept her chaste and pure up to the time of her marriage, 
although this was discredited by the scandal of the Court. That she hoped 
God would be merciful to her in that she had humihty and goodness, and that 
she loved the Truth." 



CHAPTER VI 

A TRIO OF DEVOTES AT PORT-ROYAL DE PARIS 
III. La Marquise de Sabl6 

" II faut une grace pour quitter le monde, mais il n'en faut point pour 
le hair." Madame de Sabl6 

OF all the numerous examples of that class of religious 
phenomena called devotes, none was more peculiar or 
characteristic than the Marquise de Sable. Allied 
to the literary and social life of the century, remarkable for 
gifts of mind and genial fellowship, her name is yet unavoidably 
linked with the internal and intimate history of Port -Royal 
de Paris. And throughout the troubled annals of persecu- 
tion and controversy attaching to the so-called Jansenists 
and their friends, her personality never fails to awaken amuse- 
ment and sympathy by its inconsistencies and vagaries, the very 
weaknesses of her character lending charm and meaning to the 
imcompromising austerity of her spiritual mentors and guides. 
Born in 1599, on the very threshold of the seventeenth 
century, the early life of Madeleine de Souvre, Marquise de 
Sable, would be obscure in the extreme were it not for the 
ingenious suppositions of her biographer, M. Victor Cousin, 
who divined in her the original of the Princesse Parthenie in 
Mile, de Scudery's novel, Le Grand Cyrus. ^ It tells us she was 
tall, of fine figure, lovely eyes ; that her throat was the most 
beautiful in the world, her complexion admirable, her hair 
blonde, her mouth agreeable : 

" What a store of charms and beauty ! 
Force of mind and sweetest mien ! 
Savage would each hberty 
Taken in her presence seem. 

^ V. Cousin, "Madame de Sable et Voiture " {La SocUU Frangaise au 
XVII suae. n. 3). 

106 



MADAME DE SABLfi 107 

Who so dull as not to see 

The Graces now are more than three ? " * 

sang, apropos of Madame de Sable, the brother of the author 
of the Grand Cyrus, Georges de Scudery, in his Cabinet de 
Curiosites. 

Brought up in Touraine, the father of Madeleine de Souvre 
was the distinguished Marquis de Courtenvaux, whom in 
gratitude for services rendered him in the battle of Courtras, 
Henri iv had made Governor of the young Louis xiii, with 
baton of Marechal of France. Naturally, the daughter was 
surrounded from her earliest years with flattery and adula- 
tion. Thus it is curious that politeness, whose essence is 
surely kindness of heart and unselfishness, has been considered 
her most marked characteristic. Yet the contrasts in her 
nature were so vivid as to allow both of this encomium of 
M. Cousin's, and M. de Sainte-Beuve's dictum that she was : 

*' Ingenieuse, friande, et peureuse." ^ 

That the young Mile, de Souvre was also extraordinarily 
romantic and precieuse in matters of gallantry, belonging to 
the early Rambouillet circle, and drawing her ideal of love 
from Spanish and Moorish models, is testified by Madame de 
Motteville. To the future Marquise, love meant smiles and 
sighs, protestations of devotion couched in hyperbole and 
poetical similes, by the lover too respectful and timid to ap- 
proach near enough to touch the garment of his lady-love. 
Unfortunately the great gallantry of her life was concentrated 
on the unhappy Due de Montmorenci. 

On meeting Madeleine de Souvre before her marriage, this 
ideal hero of romance and tragedy at once became violently 
enamoured, and it was not difficult for the much-sought-after 
gallant to awaken a like passion in the breast of the romantic 
lady of the Court, who doubtless failed to realize that, although 
elegant, gay, and brave. Due Henri de Montmorenci was not 
particularly intellectual or spiritual. 

* " Que d'attraits et que de beaute ! 

Que d'esprit et de complaisance ! 

Quelle farouche hberte, 

A pu tenir en sa presence ? 

Et qui ne voit, a cette fois. 

Que les Graces sont plus de trois ? " (p. 147). 
2 '* Ingenious, timid, and dainty" {Port-Royal, ii. p. 207). 



io8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Gestures, it would seem, stood him in place of brains : 

" How happy that man is to have arms ! " exclaimed a wit 
of him on one occasion. 

" He did not talk nonsense," says the same chronicler, 
" but he had a short mind." ^ 

Feted on all sides, the amorous soldier soon tired of this love 
d la precieuse, and discovering that his eyes were looking higher, 
even to the throne itself, Madame de Sable promptly shut him 
out of her life, and from that moment banished gallantry 
from her existence, finding thereafter her solace in the colder 
emotion of friendship. ^ 

At the age of fifteen, without her own volition. Mile, de 
Souvre was married to Philippe Emmanuel de Laval Mont- 
morency, Marquis de Sable. At this period, she might have 
easily been conquered by the love of an honest husband. But 
unfortunately, although before his marriage a most ardent 
lover, soon after the ceremony the Marquis became in his 
turn indifferent, quickly developing into a faithless and 
cruel master. Their union, which lasted twenty- six years, 
was far from happy. It had but one fortunate effect : in the 
early days of her marriage, under the influence of the Marquis's 
indifference and dislike, Madame de Sable retired to her estate 
of Sable in the country. Here, in the quiet and solitude, she 
found consolation and relief in study, thus acquiring the 
knowledge and intellectual poise for which she became so 
noted. 3 

When, in 1640, the Marquis de Sable died suddenly, all 
the four children had thrown off family ties. The only daughter 
was a nun at Rouen ; the eldest son, afterward Bishop of La 
Rochelle, was busy making his own very prosperous career in 
the Church ; the second son was a volatile personage of little 
comfort to his mother ; the third son, the pride of the family, 
was a soldier in the service of the Great Conde. Thus widowed 
and bereft of her children, leaving the neighbourhood of the 

1 Tallemant des Reaux, Historiettes, iii. p. 95. 

2 Madame de SahU, p. 3 1 . 

^ "The qualities of Madame de Sabl6 consisted," says Sainte-Beuve, "in 
a veritable distinction and a certain solidity of mind, which caused Arnauld 
to send her the PreUminary Discourse of the Logic to divert her and have 
her advice, and La Rochefoucauld to consult her on the matter and form of 
his Maxims " {Port-Royal, v. p. 54). 



MADAME DE SABLfi 109 

Louvre, Madame de Sabl6 removed to the Place Royale, 
where her intimate friend, the Comtesse de Maure, joined 
her. 

This friend and consoler of Madame de Sable's widowhood 
and after life was also a famous precteuse and woman of 
intellectual attainments. Their acquaintance had begun at 
the Court of Marie de Medecis, where Mile. Anne d'Attichy, 
like Madame de Sable, filled the position of Maid of Honour. 
Even in her youth, Madame de Maure had been a most peculiar 
person who reversed the actions of the rest of the world. ^ 
Of delicate health, her mind was yet so keen that, although 
when people were talking to her her spirit was in the habit 
of wandering off on several voyages of its own, she always 
returned from dreamland in time to answer most pertinently, 
showing that throughout she had understood what was being 
said. 2 

The great bond between the Comtesse de Maure and 
Madame de Sable was their mutual terror of contagious illness. 
Living together in the same house in the Place Royale, these 
two dames sometimes did not see each other for three months 
at a time, the least cold preventing all communication, their 
intercourse being carried on by letter. 

The Grande Mademoiselle, so quick to see the defects of 
those about her, could not fail to perceive the humour in 
the character of Madame de Sable, and in the Princesse de 
Paphlagonie ^ she describes the life led by the two friends. 
They were occupied in concerting means by which they 
might avoid death and render themselves immortal. Their 
conferences on this important subject were not held face to 
face, but by writing from one room to another, each hypo- 
chondriac being afraid of draughts, dampness and dryness, 
the weather, and a thousand unforeseen accidents. 

" C'etaient des princesses,** concludes Mademoiselle, " qui 
n'avaient rien de mortel que la connaissance de Tetre." * 

1 " One may say with truth," said the Marquis de Sourdis, " that the 
Comtesse de Maure would be a perfect person if she only could, Hke the rest 
of the world, subject herself to clocks" (portrait of Madame.de Maure in 
la Gallerie de Portraits de Mile, de Montpensier, p. 140). 

2 Mile, de Scudery, Le Grand Cyrus, tome ix. p. 548. 

3 CEuvres de Segrais, tome i. p. 251. 

* " They were princesses," concludes Mademoiselle, " who had nothing 
mortal about them, but the knowledge of being so " (ibid. p. 252), 



no THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

As early as 1640, the year of her husband's death, Madame 
de Sable had been in communication with Port-Royal through 
Mere Angelique, and soon after this time she began making 
retreats at Port-Royal de Paris, '' without having been touched 
in any marked way by Divine Grace." ^ In 1646 the great 
sorrow of her life came to strengthen this slight tendency 
toward religious retirement, for in that year she lost her third 
and favourite son in battle. This son, Guy de Laval, belonged 
to that class of soldiers known in the Grand Steele under the 
title of " Petits Maitres." These men were friends and 
followers of the Great Conde. They accompanied him alike 
into battle, intrigue, amusement, or danger of any kind 
whatsoever — a band of gentlemanly dare-devils, always first 
and foremost wherever they went. 

Guy de Laval was one of the handsomest and bravest of 
this corps. Every one loved him, and his mother, of course, 
did more — she adored him. After distinguishing himself 
at Rocroy and Thionville, he was killed at the age of twenty- 
four at the siege of Dunkerque. 

For a long time the Marquise de Sable was overwhelmed 
by this calamity, unable to again take up the threads of an 
interrupted existence, which was made more difficult just 
at this time by the loss of her fortune. Obliged to seU her 
estate of Sable and to retrench in various ways, she yet had 
sufficient strength to react from sorrow and misfortune, and, 
calling upon her intellectual resources to aid her, she resumed 
her everyday round, again visiting the Rambouillet, and 
frequenting the soirees of the Grande Mademoiselle at 
the Luxembourg. 

These pleasures were interrupted by the Fronde and its 
excitements, during which troublous time, Madame de Sable, 
with extraordinary talent, managed to maintain peaceful 
relations with both Frondists and Royalists. 2 The Fronde 
over, her religious enthusiasm culminated in a firm decision, 

^ In her great charity, nevertheless, Mdre Ang6Uque wrote of Madame 
de Sable : " Elle se separe le plus qu'elle pent du monde, et sincdrement 
elle veut dtre toute k Dieu" (Lettre k la Reine de Pologne, 21 Mai 1654). 

2 " Sans avoir le genie poUtique de la Palatine, et sans €tre melee autant 
qu'elle aux agitations des partis, Madame de Sable intervint toujours, comme 
la Palatine, pour adoucir les divisions et conciUer les inter^ts. . . . Aussi 
la guerre civile n'ot& pas un seul ami ^ Madame de Sable" (V. Cousin, La 
Marquise de SahU, p. 32). 



MADAME DE SABLfi iii 

in consequence of which, leaving the Place Royale and 
Madame de Maure — who did not altogether approve her 
new move, she joined herself definitely to the monastery of 
Port-Royal de Paris, building there a small house fronting 
on the Rue de la Bourbe — at the end of the choir, forming 
part of the chapter-house. Here the salon, modelled after 
the Rambouillet, was small but aristocratic, also not a little 
galant, in spite of a flavour of the spirit of religion which 
inevitably penetrated through the doors separating the domain 
of Madame de Sable from her sainted neighbours. 

Notwithstanding this highly intellectual and ideal tend- 
ency which attached to the Port-Royal salon of the Marquise 
de Sable, for a long time the atmosphere there was not the 
less worldly. It seems to have been tinged with those material 
pleasures with which people of godly inclinations are oft times 
reproached, and which were especially imputed to the Jansenists. 

M. de Gondren, Archbishop of Sens, is accredited with 
extremes in this kind. He offered his Jansenist friends most 
sumptuous feasts, and was himself the inventor of a costly 
perfume with which he saturated the wax candles used at 
his dinner-table. Under each plate, too, his guests found a 
pair of perfumed gloves. This prelate was, nevertheless, 
called the Successor of the Apostles, the imitator of their 
virtues, and he branded the Jesuits and the Capuchins 
together as corrupters of morality and seducers of souls.^ 

One of the Marquise's friends, the Abbe de la Victoire, 
himself a great judge of such matters, is reported to have said 
that the Devil having been banished from Madame de Sable's 
bedchamber and cabinet, habitually took refuge in her kitchen.^ 

It is most piquant to read in the letters of the Due de la 
Rochefoucauld of the combination of intellectual commerce 
and gustatorial interest which reigned between him and 
Madame de Sable. The Port-Royal influence is probably 
accountable for the fact that in this drawing-room it became 
the habit for Madame de Sable and her guests to discuss 
the highest ethical subjects, and to make moral reflections 
or maxims of their own.^ Going to her house there, the 

^ Ricard, Les Premiers JansSnistes, p. 1 1 1 . 
2 Ibid. 

' As Sainte-Beuve said : " Madame de Sable's salon was the grand 
laboratory of the Maxims" {Port-Royal, v. p. 67). 



112 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Pessimist of the Fronde found it delightful to solace his 
wounded feelings by making moral reflections descriptive 
of the hypocrisy, unfaithfulness, and general degeneracy 
of mankind. Madame de Sable met him on this common 
ground, believed in him, herself wrote Maxims, criticized his, 
and incited him to new ones, finally inducing him to make 
a collection of his own for publication. In revenge for his 
maxims, for, as he reminded the Marquise, one does not give 
away things for nothing, the Duke demanded all sorts of 
culinary dainties at her hands. On one occasion, sending her 
eight maxims, he asked in return : 

" A carrot soup, a ragout of mutton and one of beef, 
some green sauce, and yet another dish, with a capon stuffed 
with prunes, or anything else you may judge worthy." ^ 

Neither Madame de Sable's own maxims, clever as they 
were, nor the other details of her life show her to have been 
particularly spiritual or religious ; and, without a key to her 
reasons for entering Port-Royal, it would be difficult to under- 
stand why she joined herself to the monastery at all. As 
Sainte-Beuve puts it, she always had one foot in the world 
and one eye on the cloister, or, according to a still more 
epigrammatic utterance, 

" Madame de Sabl6 was only the most spirituelle of the 
Incurables of Port-Royal." 2 

With her usual wisdom. Mere Angelique, when discussing 
Madame de Sabl6's proposed annexation to Port -Royal de 
Paris, had feared this close juxtaposition of the worldly to 
the conventual atmosphere, and had stipulated that neither 
Madame de Sable's household nor her visitors should be 
allowed to look into the adjoining buildings. This caution 
was necessary, as only a short passage-way separated 
Madame de Sable's house from the inner monastery. On 
her part, on entering the precincts of Port-Royal, the latter 
covenanted that neither the number of all persons in the 
infirmary nor the natiue of their illnesses be hidden from 
her. 

The Marquise had now reached the age of fifty-four, and 
the peculiarities of her youth had already become very pro- 
1 Lettres, p. 149. ^ Port-Royal, ii. p. yj. 



MADAME DE SABLfi I13 

nounced. Although from the first, Mere Angelique en- 
deavoured to make a strong character of the Marquise, and 
constantly had her on her mind, even when death came, 
it was naturally with Mere Agnes, the head of the Paris 
monastery at this time, with whom Madame de Sable had 
most to do. Through the interminable letters which passed 
between the little house fronting on the street, by way of 
the communicating door leading into the monastery into 
the office of the Abbess, we realize that the Marquise 
was ^certainly [no very easy person to manage, that in fact 
she was a veritable thorn in the flesh of the whole com- 
munity. Often the mystical Mere Agnes must have found 
it well-nigh impossible to preserve her attitude of in- 
tellectual and spiritual aloofness when dealing with the 
Marquise. Yet she was a marvel of patience and good 
humour, and her motto in answering all her penitent's 
complaints was : 

" The more one takes away from the senses, the more one 
gives to the mind.'* ^ 

On one occasion we learn that Madame de Sable, in conse- 
quence of a severe cold, is unable to enjoy the scent of the 
bouquet picked for her each day in the Abbey garden ; and 
that as usual Mere Agnes has been called upon to calm her 
devotee's agitation, this time over a feared loss of the sense 
of smell. After commenting upon her own lack in this 
regard, she having lost her perception of odours when 
very young. Mere Agnes reminded the Marquise that flowers 
were a joy to look at as well as to smell. Again, when 
a too sensitive development of the same organ led the 
Marquise to distinguish the odour of candles being made 
in the convent, Mere Agnes calmly meets her threat of 
leaving the monastery, by having the factory removed to 
the far end of the garden. 

Even Nature was expected to change for the sake of this 
exacting dame, and another of Mere Agnes' letters answers 
the complaint that the Marquise has no sun in her room. 

" It is enough," she wrote, " that your tribune in 
the Church should face the East, and that you should be 
exposed to the Sun of Justice, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, tome xiv. p. 157. 
8 



114 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

You will find without doubt on that side the health of your 
soul and your body, as much as it pleases God to give you." ^ 

Yet when all is said and done with regard to the various 
shortcomings, littlenesses, and inconsistencies of Madame de 
Sable, it is hard to believe that she was quite as " intriguing, 
mischief-making, noisy and curious " as Sainte-Beuve would 
have us think. M. Faugere, in his Introduction to the letters 
of Mere Agnes, speaks of Madame de Sable as 

" that distinguished woman who refined upon all the com- 
modities of life." 

And many persons both within and without the monastery 
testified to her insight into human life, its passions and pit- 
falls, giving her credit at the same time for kindness and 
humanity. Mere Angelique celebrated her knowledge of the 
passions, distastes and allurements of society, M. d'Andilly 
considered some of her thoughts as showing ripe experience 
of a world of exquisite refinement, while La Rochefoucauld 
went so far as to credit her with a comprehension of the inmost 
recesses of the human heart. ^ 

Madame de Sable had none of the pious veneration 
of the other penitents for Port-Royal des Champs. From 
the first, indeed, she had declared herself to be a fixture in 
Paris. 3 She would not even visit the monastery in the country, 
being afraid of the stagnant pond, and possible germs she 
might find lurking there. During the persecutions in the 
Paris house she did not once interrupt her worldly interests. 
It was, in fact, in 1665, at the very climax of the troubles of 
the monastery, that La Rochefoucauld's maxims were pub- 
lished, and, without compunction or thought of her friends 
in trouble, Madame de Sable interested herself heart and 
soul in them. At another time she calmly removed herself 
and her salon from the Faubourg St. Jacques to the house 
of her brother, the Commander de Souvre, Rue des Petits 
Champs. Moreover, when Port -Royal de Paris fell into 
the hands of anti-sympathizers, Madame de Sable did not 

1 Lettre du 23 Oct. 1663. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. pp. 51-80. In his Causeries du Lundi, bookiv. 
p. 103, the same writer tells us that " Madame de Sable, la spirituelle amie 
de La Rochefoucauld, n'6crivait pas un mot d'ortographe." 

^ " EUe avait des I'origine, fait voeu de stabilite pour Paris " (Sainte- 
Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 74). 



MADAME DE SABLfi 115 

discontinue her relations with it, but became quite as friendly 
with the usurpers as she had been with the real Port- Royalists. 
How, then, may we interpret her connection with the 
monastery ? The raison d'etre seems best explained on the 
basis of the analysis made by M. Faugere : 

*' Madame de Sable," he said, " came under the roof of 
Port -Royal much less to associate herself with its austere 
practices than to seek a shelter against the terrors of death." ^ 

This peculiar and particular fear of hers was well known 
in her day, and Tallemant relates that, having his image 
always before her thoughts, she did not wish to court 
Death's brother Sleep. That she might never slumber 
profoundly, either her doctor or her maids were detailed 
to watch her from the moment she lay down. In their 
hands they held a lighted candle, so that when she opened 
her eyes she might at once see its reassuring gleam. ^ It 
was probably for her that La Rochefoucauld made the 
following maxim : 

" Few people understand death ; they suffer it not by 
resolution, but by stupidity, and by custom, and most men 
die only because they know not how to prevent dying." ^ 

In 1663, when the Comtesse de Maure was dying, Madame 
de Sable sent Chalais to inquire for her. 

" But," said she, " take care that you do not tell me she 
has passed away." 

Chalais arrived at the Comtesse de Maure's just as she was 
expiring. On his retmrn Madame de Sable said : 

" Well ! Chalais, is she as ill as she can be ? Is she no 
longer able to eat ? " 

" No, Madame," responded Chalais. 

" Does she no longer speak ? " 

^^Stillless." 

" Does she not hear ? " 

" Not at all." 

" Is she then dead ? " 

" Madame," replied Chalais ; ''at least it is you who 
have said it, not I." * 

1 Faugdre, Introduction aux Lettres de la Mdre Agn^s Arnauld, p. xvi. 
' Histofiettes, vol. iii. p. 85. « See Lettres La Rochefoucauld, p. 149. 

* Historiettes, vol. iii. p. 84. 



ii6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

On one occasion, having lost her appetite, Madame de 
Sabl6 grew very sad, remembering that a distaste for food 
was evidenced by Mere Angelique some time before her death. 

" My dear Sister," wrote M^re Agnes, " you are very far 
from the distaste of our late Mother ; hers was a distaste of 
Death — yours is but passing." ^ 

At this unguarded mention of Death, Madame de Sable took 
such a fright that Mere Agnes was obliged to write again 
reprimanding her, and adjuring her to make war on all the 
black thoughts which tormented her, and which, she said, 
would grow darker the more she allowed them headway. 

But it is delightful to learn that although no power could 
ever suffice to entirely rid the " Maniacal Marquise," as she 
was called, of habits acquired during many years — the brunt 
of which it was the good fortune of Mere Agnes to bear — as 
time went on the serene and beautiful influence of Port-Royal 
so near her had its effect in lessening these littlenesses, these 
vague terrors. For toward the end of her life, penetrated 
inevitably by the spirit of Port- Royal, Madame de Sable 
became ever more penitent, more resigned, and more tranquil. 
Even her fear of the last Terror seemed to diminish, and in 
1678, at the age of eighty, she finally passed on to that plane 
where there is no death, gently and humbly, her dying wish 
being to be buried, not in the great armorial vaults of the 
Souvres or of the Montmorency-Lavals, nor even to be honoured 
by sepulchre at Port-Royal itself, but to be interred like any 
ordinary citizen of her quarter, in the parish burial-ground.^ 
Her remains still lie, therefore, in that curious old church, 
St. Jacques du Haut Pas, where so many distinguished fellow- 
penitents and Jansenists found rest for their ashes. 

And the honest souls of Port-Royal, in writing the 
Marquise's epitaph for their Necrologe, found only this to 
praise in her — whom, nevertheless, they designated as " the 
very particular friend and benefactor of Port- Royal de 
Paris " — her humility ! ^ 

^ Lettre du 18 Oct, 1663. 
2 Victor Cousin, La Marquise de SdbU, p. 303. 

^ " Les sottises d'autruy nous doivent estre plutost une instruction qu'un 
sujet de nous moquer de ceux qui les font " (maxim de Madame de Sable). 



CHAPTER VII 

THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN. BEGINNING OF 
PERSECUTION. THE " BOOK OF THE FREQUENT 
COMMUNION " 

" The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, 
they will also persecute you" 

FROM boyhood, Antoine Arnauld had developed iinusual 
traits' of intelligence and piety. Educated in the College 
of Lisieux, he made the law his special study, and at first 
seemed to incline to the legal profession. It was his mother 
who finally persuaded him to forsake the calling of his for- 
bears for a study of theology. And, entering the Sorbonne at 
her suggestion, he was just about to take the second step in his 
Sorbonnical evolution when, being assailed by some doubts, 
he applied to St. Cyran for their resolution. With his usual 
perception the latter understood where the trouble lay, and, 
gaining the confidence of the young student, endeavoured to 
help him by attacking the most vulnerable point — ^worldly 
vanity. 

" The doctrinal dignity,*' he wrote, " has deceived you, 
even as Beauty deceived the two elders " (aUuding to the 
well-known story of Suzanne and the Elders).^ 

This letter was followed by other long epistles. At first 
Arnauld was timid about resigning himself whoUy to St.Cyran's 
influence, being afraid the Abbe would require him to give up 
the finishing of his licentiate and the Sorbonne altogether. 
He was relieved when St. Cyran advised him to remain where 
he was, and to go on with his degree : 

" Prayer and fasting twice a week," said his mentor, 

1 X-ettre du 27 Decembre 1638. 
"7 



ii8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

" will serve as sparks to illuminate the desire you have to vow 
yourself to God," ^ 

adding that the brilHant student might build himself an 
interior library wherein he could labour to transfer the science 
from his head to his heart. There transformed, it could issue 
forth and be spread abroad as God willed. 

St. Cyran was directly responsible for the Book of the 
Frequent Communion. At the time of the great storm induced 
by the publication of the Augustinus, he himself was power- 
less to defend the principles which the book of Jansenius 
embodied. He appealed therefore to Antoine Arnauld, the 
disciple in whom of all others he had recognised great 
intellectual possibilities, and in whom his prophetic vision 
already foresaw the future head controversialist of Port- 
Royal. 

Although his disputatious natiure might in any case have 
led Antoine Arnauld to defend the ideals of his friends, his 
native inclination worked upon by St. Cyran's counsels was 
solidified at this moment by a last message from his mother, 
who in 1641 was on her death-bed at Port-Royal de Paris. 
To have permitted a laym^an to go into the nuns' quarters 
there, even to receive the blessing of a djdng mother, would 
have been to the stem disciples of St. Cyran " too great a 
concession to nature." Lancelot relates that Antoine Arnauld, 
going to stay all night at Port-Royal, asked Singlin to allow 
him to serve as a clerk in surplice at the ceremony of the 
Extreme Unction administered to his mother, but Singlin did 
not think it right to have more than one officiating priest, and 
De Saci had already been appointed. Antoine therefore begged 
Singlin to at least bring him a message from his mother — some 
word that all his life he might consider not only as her final 
utterance, but as the expression of God's wiU concerning him. 
Accordingly, through Singlin, the dying Madame Arnauld ex- 
horted her " last son," as she caUed him, to keep in humility 
the vow of his priesthood, though it cost him a thousand lives ; 
and never to relax in his defence of the Truth, the Truth be- 
longing not to him, but to God alone. ^ 

In itself this solemn advice would have been sufficient for 
so dutiful a son, but in February 1643, Arnauld received a long 

^ Lettre du 4 Janvier 1639. 
2 J^aiicelot, M^moires, i. p. 322. 




ANTOINE ARXAULD 

FROM A BRONZE BUST IN THE LOUVRE 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 119 

letter from St. Cyran, containing still more inflammatory 
words. 

" If until now/' he wrote, " silence has been best, the time 
to speak, when to keep silent would be a crime, has at last 
arrived. Lest sensible persons think us in fault, do not hesitate 
longer, nor be deterred by fear of further harm accruing to me 
in prison." 

The letter then concluded thus : 

" We must follow where God leads, and do nothing in a 
cowardly way.'* 

These exhortations from the two people he most revered 
in the world had an extraordinary effect upon Arnauld, and 
they are the keynote of his whole after-life. They explain the 
fact that his defence of the Truth as he understood it continued 
through exile, poverty, and ignominy, until the eighty years of 
his earthly pilgrimage were over. 

It was after his mother's death and St. Cyran's letter, 
before taking the priest's robe and while buckling on his 
armour for the fight, that the incident which determined the 
nature of his attack occurred. This was a chance interview 
between the Princesse de Gu^mene and Madame de Sable, two 
ladies whom one day in laughing playfulness and apropos 
of Arnauld's book the Due de La Rochefoucauld called The 
Founders of Jansenism.'^ 

In early life Madame de Sable had been under the influence 
of the famous Jesuit, Pere Cotton ; after her marriage, her 
director was another Jesuit named Sesmaisons.^ Like other 
persons of quality in those days, she was in the habit of taking 
the Holy Communion every month. Her friend, the Princesse 
de Guemene, on the contrary, in the height of her then recently 
acquired enthusiasm for the teachings of Port-Royal, followed 
strictly the instructions of Ces Messieurs by communicating 
much less frequently. It happened that directly after Madame 
de Guemene had made one of her rare communions, Madame 
de Sable urged her to go to a ball. Madame de Guemene 
indignantly refused ; and, full of the spirit of Port-Royal 
austerity, took upon herself to criticize the too frequent com- 
munion of her friend. This being a direct animadversion of 
Jesuit principles, Madame de Sabl6 at once reported the words 

* Rapin, M&moires, i. p. 29. 2 /^^-^^^ p. 33. 



120 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of Madame de Guem6n6 to her confessor Sesmaisons, who to 
justify himself gave Madame de Sable an extract from Molina's 
book, in which the great authority scientifically established 
his reasons for frequent communion. ^ 

The next time they met, therefore, Madame de Sable 
presented Madame de Guemene with Pere Sesmaisons* 
pamphlet on the subject, in which, among other things, it 
was authoritatively stated that the more one is devoid of 
grace the more boldly one may approach the Eucharist. ^ 
Although while showing this to Madame de Guemene, 
Madame de Sabl6 begged the Princess to keep the matter 
to herself, the Jansenist enthusiast felt it her duty to show 
the pamphlet to St. Cyran. 

In his Preface, Arnauld gives an account of how he 
came to write the Frequent Communion. Acknowledging to 
have been at first disinclined to answer the question brought 
up by Pere Sesmaisons, he says he was finally induced to do 
so by the " quality " of the person who had asked to be en- 
lightened. This remark, seeming a little fulsome, M. Arnauld 
in the next sentence explained that the piety and laudable 
desire to show gratitude to God evinced by the said person 
merited still more deference than her rank. 

Fortunately, he continued, although there had fallen into 
the hands of his informant a writing designed to turn her from 
the road in which the Almighty had placed her, she had already 
received sufficient knowledge of religion to understand the evil 
of the communication. Furthermore, it was love of the Truth 
which then caused her to desire an elucidating response to the 
Jesuit's statements. 

Thus there was some basis for the remark of the Due de la 
Rochefoucauld, these two ladies having been the fortuitous 
means at least of inducing the Grand Arnauld to write the book 
which had the effect of bringing the movement into notoriety, 
and, like the Translation of the New Testament sent Francis 
First through Marguerite d'Angouleme, of precipitating the 
ensuing war upon the heads of its leaders. 

1 Pdre Rapin analyses Molina's rules to have been three : 

1 . Ancient usage of the Church. 

2. Counsel of a wise director. 

3. The state and condition of affairs of each person {MSmoires, i. p. 29). 

2 " Plus on est denue de Grdce, plus on doit hardiment s'approcher de 
J6sus Christ dans I'Eucharistie" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 167). 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 121 

M. Arnauld's argument was to the effect that, while he did 
not think it wise to keep people away for any length of time 
from the Communion Table, he still saw no reason why those 
who felt the need of becoming spiritualized before approaching 
so sacred a Sacrament should not be allowed to defer its cele- 
bration until their penitential discipline was complete. On the 
other hand, he contended, the old method of fasting in sackcloth 
and ashes was unnecessary, it being quite possible to carry out 
one's penitence in the midst of the world. The power lay, 
after all, not in the Sacraments themselves, which had no 
efficacy to make better, but uniquely in the grace of God. 

The body of the work goes into a detailed analysis and 
refutation of Molina's theories and reasonings, the arguments 
being based on decisive quotations from the Scriptures and the 
writings of the Fathers of the Church. ^ 

In the opinion of critics, the Book of the Frequent Com- 
munion was not inspired : it was simply a workmanlike piece 
of logic, written with common sense and wisdom. Through 
its method it may have revolutionized theological literature, 
but it neither charmed by its phraseology, nor was it arresting 
in its eloquence. Yet in making clear St. Cyran's hitherto 
more or less hidden and obscure ideas on piety and penitence, 
these doctrines came as an "illuminating flash " into the world, 
especially as they were directed against the theology which 
makes everything pleasant and comfortable for the sinner. 
Speaking by the mouth of Arnauld, the Jansenists now strongly 
criticized casuistry, and, forbidding all purely earthly delights, 
condemned the easy adjustment of pleasure and penitence. 

The Jesuits were, of course, tremendously incensed by so 
pronounced a criticism of their methods, and one of their 
number began to denounce the book before it was fairly in 
circulation. In these sermons, preached in the religious house 
of St. Louis, Pere Nouet descended to personal invective 
against the Jansenists themselves, calling them 

" fantastical, lunatical, melancholy scorpions, or serpents 
with three-pointed tongues." 2 

^ Although Arnauld laid down the same rules for communion as Molina, 
he differed essentially in the matter of deferring the Sacrament until the 
completion of penitence. 

2 Pere Quesnel, in his Histoire AbrSgSe de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld, 
p.^88, declares that Pdre Nouet declaimed in an " insolent " manner_^against 



122 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

This was a singular demonstration, in view of the fact that some 
months previously Pere Nouet had himself revised the Appro- 
bation of the Preface of Arnauld's work, which was written in 
Latin and signed by the Archbishop of Tours as well as sixteen 
Bishops and Archbishops, as well as by twenty doctors of the 
Sorbonne. Naturally, these latter resented the criticism against 
their Approbation, and at once appealed to Cardinal Mazarin 
for redress. Whereupon, assisted by four fathers of his Order, 
Pere Nouet was compelled to appear in the Sorbonne, bare- 
headed and on his knees, to sign an act of disavowal of what 
he had said.^ 

But the temporary defeat of the Jesuits in the matter did 
not cause the excitement to subside. Thus the Crown was 
again called in to interfere, and when appealed to by the Jesuits 
in the crisis caused by the Book of the Frequent Communion, 
Mazarin and Anne of Austria, ruling the kingdom for the 
young Louis xiv, were induced to give an order that the 
author of the book appear at Rome to defend it before a 
tribunal of the Inquisition. In this expedition Arnauld was to 
have been accompanied by St. Cjnran's nephew, M. de Barcos, 
who was responsible for certain parts of the book ; but just as 
they were on the point of starting, the latter decided it would 
be dangerous to go. So without explanation he absented himself 
— or, in other words, fled into hiding. Arnauld, who had talked 
much about going to Rome to " defend the Truth," and of 
returning " gloriously," ^ suddenly concluded that M. de Barcos 
had chosen the wiser course. So, after writing a beautiful 
letter of excuse to the Queen, he also fled, his refuge being the 
house of a M. Hamelin, an officer of the Crown, Controlleur 
des Fonts et Chaussees, who in order, as he said, " to more 
surely guard his treasure," left the quarter in which he 
was living at the time, and removed to the Faubourg 
Saint Marceau. M. de St. Cyran's nephew was sheltered 
by the Princesse de Guemene, who no doubt thought, 
in thus giving asylum to one so near the saint who had 
just gone, that she had gained a greater prize than M. 
Hamelin. 

the Frequent Communion in his sermons at St. Louis, even saying that the 
doctrine was worse than that of Luther or Calvin. 

1 Histoire AbrSgee de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld, p. 88. 

2 Lancelot, M^moires, p. 271. 



THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 123 

As a boy, Martin de Barcos had studied at Louvain under 
Jansenius, who, while recognizing the solid qualities of his 
pupil's mind, found him somewhat heavy and slow, also rather 
quarrelsome. The allegation was later on brought forward 
by enemies that St. Cyran had induced Jansenius to take 
funds from his bishopric for the education of Martin de Barcos. 
In his Provincial Letters, Pascal nobly defended the dead saint 
from this charge, which doubtless had no foundation but that 
of malice. On leaving Louvain, De Barcos devoted himself 
uninterruptedly to St. Cyran, never quitting his side, but 
living and working with him continuously, probably editing 
the Aurelius, as well as other writings.^ 

Up to the time of the Frequent Communion, de Barcos had 
been universally venerated at Port-Royal. But now division 
crept in between him and Arnauld on points of doctrine and 
conduct. As Sainte-Beuve said of this learned descendant 
of St. C57ran : 

" He had a somewhat annoying pen," 

and certainly by his writings De Barcos seemed to be con- 
tinually stirring up theological strife. ^ 

Although the first act in the drama of Port- Royal persecu- 
tion and controversy may be called the publication of the 
AugusHnus in 1640, the Book of the Frequent Communion was 
destined to create the excuse to the enemies of the Jansenists 
for a more personal attack on Port-Royal itself, and it marks 
the beginning of that era of persecution on the part of the 
enemies of the Jansenists, of evasion on the part of the perse- 
cuted, signalled by Arnauld's flight in 1644, which was now 
to continue almost unbrokenly to the end. It was this book, 
however, which earned for Antoine Arnauld the title of 

1 When St. Cyran died, his Abbey in Brenne was coveted on all sides, 
enemies contesting that it ought not to be given to a Jansenist. Yet in spite 
of opposition it was finally presented to De Barcos. On the new Abbe going 
to thank Anne of Austria for the gift, she exclaimed : 

" Eh, what would M. d'Andilly have said if I had given it to another ? " 
(Pierre Thomas du Fosse, Mimoires, i. p. 130), 

2 Sainte-Beuve thus describes M. de Barcos: "He was of medium height, 
we are told, with refined physiognomy, a gravity and seriousness adapted 
to affright demons. . . ." {Port-Royal, ii. p. 222). According to P^re Rapin, 
De Barcos's own opinion of Arnauld was that he had mind, but too much 
commerce with the world, even asserting that Arnauld was too dissipated 
and too much given to society (Memoires, i. p. 35). 



124 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Champion of Jansenism. Accordingly, the modem unim- 
passioned verdict calls the book itself 

" a temperate and just exposition of the faith of Jansenius 
and St. Cyran, unspoiled by quibbles of scholastic dispute." ^ 

Its result — as first skirmish in the battle — may thus be 
considered a victory for the Jansenists, for by this second 
example of the Letter of their Law the disciples of Jansenius 
and St. Cyran really convinced the world at large not only of 
the sacredness of the Sacraments, but of the fact that a true 
Christian should not approach them lightly. ^ 

1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, i. p. 281. 

2 In 1686 Arnauld himself wrote : " Ce qui est certain, c'est que le plus 
celdbres predicateurs, meme Jesuites, se font honneur maintenant de louer 
en chaire le delai de I'absolution pour les peches mortels d'habitude, . . . et 
qu'il n'y en a plus qui osent parler contre" (see (Euvres). 



CHAPTER VIII 

IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF THE " BOOK OF THE 
FREQUENT COMMUNION " ON FORT-ROYAL 

" II y a une justice des oeuvres, il y a une justice de la grace; Tune vient 
de rhomme, I'autre vient de Dieu ; Tune est terrestre et passagdre, 
I'autre est divine et eternelle ; Tune est I'ombre et le signe, I'autre est 
la lumidre et la verite. L'une fait connaitre le pech6 pour fuir la mort, 
I'autre fait connaitre la grace pour acquerir la vie" 

WHATEVER the literary merits or defects of the Fre- 
quent Communion, in itself it was epoch-making 
in more than Jansenist circles. Read not only by 
theologians, but by all classes of society, its immediate effect 
was inspiring. For, in making clear the letter of their belief, 
it threw into relief the beauty of the practice of the Spirit 
by the men who had voluntarily exiled themselves from the 
delights of the world. Others yearned to follow their pre- 
cedent,^ and among the many drawn to Port-Royal by the 
Book of the Frequent Communion there were, strangely enough, 
converts not only from the military and leisure classes, but 
that most valuable profession of all, medicine. As Mere 
Angelique wrote M. Hamon : ^ 

*' After the great gift of a perfect confessor, there is nothing 
more important than that of a truly Christian physician, who 
expresses in all his actions and words the holy maxims of 
Christianity." 

The first Doctor of Medicine to be attracted to the Desert 

^ " Those who had offices, quitted them. Those who had benej&ces, 
renounced them. They despoiled themselves of everything, without reserving 
anything for the future ; and what is very remarkable, they despoiled them- 
selves thus to go into an asylum from which a blast of wind might chase 
them, leaving them thereafter no retreat" (Fontaine, M&moifes, i. p. 308). 

» In August 1658. 

125 



126 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

by the Letter of the Jansenist Law was a certain M. Victor 
Pallu, Seigneur of Breau in Touraine, and belonging to the 
Faculty of Medicine in Paris. A witness to the death of 
his distinguished patient, the Comte de Soissons, on the 
field of battle in 1641, Dr. Pallu had already resolved 
to reform his life, when his determination was strengthened 
by the sight of St. Cyran on his death-bed. Called in in 
his capacity of physician during the last seizure of the 
Abbe, M. Pallu stood by while for an hour after the 
Extreme Unction had been administered St. Cyran lay 
there in complete repose of body, employing his mind, 
which was as keen as ever, in thanking God for the graces 
shown him. At the expiration of the hour apoplexy again 
struck the patient, and soon afterward he expired. To the 
doctor, looking on, that respite seemed nothing short of 
miraculous,^ and with this vision in his mind he too read 
the Book of Frequent Communion, and resolved to go down 
to the solitude of Port-Royal des Champs.^ 

On arriving at the monastery. Dr. Pallu said to Le 
Maitre that he wished to spend some five or six days there. 
With a smile Le Maitre replied to the effect that if it 
was not God who sent him, he would remain even less than 
the time which now seemed so lengthy, but that if he had 
been sent by the Lord he would stay longer. ^ 

Le Maitre's words were prophetical, for Dr. Pallu never 
again left Port - Royal des Champs. Building a little 
dwelling within the garden of "the Abbey, he ensconced 
himself therein, and at once began his excellent offices to 
the community by writing a treatise on the salutary 
qualities of the laugh, the pleasure of which he did not 
think it necessary on his conversion to deprive himself. It 
seems that at thirty-seven years of age he had come to 
dread what he called " the silence of God " — that is, the 
sweetness of life undisturbed by the severe tests of dis- 
appointment and sorrow. It was his hatred of sin, he 

^ " Dr. Pallu attributed this good interval he had had to a kind of 
miracle, asserting that it was a thing almost without example" (Lancelot, 
Mi^moires, i. p. 249). 

2 " On n'a que soi-meme a craindre dans la Solitude, au lieu que dans le 
monde, tout est a craindre" (Hamon, TraiU de la Solitude, p. 59). 

^ See Recueil de Plusieurs PUces pour servir d I'Histoire de Port-Royal, 
p. 189. 



EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 127 

said, which compelled him to yield to the only privation 
of penitence which was difficult for him — the relinquishment 
of the companionship of dear friends.^ 

As assistant and aide-de-camp, Dr. Pallu had a certain 
M. Moreau, also a Doctor of Medicine from the Faculty of 
Paris, who, although by profession healer of bodily ills, was 
unable to cure his own spiritual disease. M. Moreau's stay at 
Port-Royal was but short, yet its remembrance must have 
haunted him, for several years afterwards he returned for a 
retreat of fifteen days, and while there, strange to say, Death 
came and fetched him away. 

Among the scholars and members of the Sorbonne who 
were aroused to a keener sense of the science they were study- 
ing by their brother doctor's (Arnauld) book, was a gentle- 
man from Poitou called M. Baudri de Saint-Gilles d'Asson, 
who on reading the Frequent Communion had already com- 
pleted three years of his education at the Sorbonne. Re- 
nouncing the completion of his degree, this gentleman retired 
at once to Les Granges, where at the other end of the garden 
from le Petit Pallu he built a little house covered with thatch, 
which the Solitaires gaily called Le Palais Saint-Gilles. At 
first M. de St. Gilles wished to take up the joiner's trade, 
but he eventually drifted into that of farmer, and soon 
became the Solitaires' Agent in business affairs outside 
the monastery. 2 On his visits to the world beyond the con- 
vent gates he found it more convenient to wear a sword like 
other cavaliers,^ and it was a joy to him to be in the thick 
of all kinds of plots and counter-plots, so much so that it was 
not long before his clever analytical mind might have been 
detected at the bottom of every pleasant contretemps that 
happened between the so-called Jansenists and the agents 

* Supplement au Necrologe de I'Abbaie de Port-Royal des Champs. Lettre 
de M. Pallu a un de ses amis sur sa Retraite a Port-Royal des Champs, p. 243. 
" Face le Mieux qui pourra," said M. Pallu, " pour moi je me contente de 
faire le Bien." 

2 Fontaine in his Memoir es (ii. pp. 352-355) speaks with great admiration 
of M. de Saint-Gilles : " He was a man fit for anything. . . . He was the 
consolation of M. SingUn through the journeys which he undertook ; that of 
M. de Saci through his negotiations ; that of his friends through his kind 
deeds ; and if I dare say so, that of the angels through the penitence which 
he carried to extremes." 

^ Memoire de M. de Pontchateau on M. St. Gilles d'Asson in the Supplement 
an Necrologe de Port-Royal, pp. 68-71. 



128 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of the King. When active work was over, and he was back 
again in the monastery, his austerities were doubly severe. M. 
de Sainte-Marthe, giving in the Necrologe a very fine account 
of this singular Solitaire's history, analysed his faults to have 
been on the outside — his heart being the purest part. 

" His charity was like flaming gold, which rendered him 
rich in the eyes of God," 

says the Eulogist. Then, being a Friend of the Truth, the 
writer added : 

** Walking in the dust, his feet at least were a bit covered 
with it." 1 

Du Fosse most graphically describes the arrival at Port- 
Royal of another gentleman from Poitou, M. de la Petitiere, 
reputed to be the best swordsman in France : 

" He was a lion rather than a man," said he ; '' fire issued 
from his eyes, and his glance alone frightened those who 
looked at him." 2 

God had aroused the soul of this man of war by a salutary 
fear. It seems that, having fought a duel with a kinsman 
of Richelieu, he killed his adversary, receiving at the same 
time a sword-thrust in his back, the point of the sword remain- 
ing there, too firmly embedded to be extracted with anything 
smaller than a smith's pincers. Fleeing to escape Richelieu's 
wrath, De la Petitiere was seized with a horror of his crimes, 
and, having heard of M. de St. Cyran and the Book of the 
Frequent Communion, found a way to retire to Port-Royal 
des Champs, not definitely, however, until he had learned the 
trade of a shoemaker, living incognito for this purpose with 
a cobbler near by. During his apprenticeship he was in 
the habit of looking after the children of the vicinity, taking 
them to hear the services, and reading aloud to them the 
Scripture and the Lives of the Saints. 

His apprenticeship over, his master was so pleased that 
he wished to keep his assistant permanently, offering La 
Petitiere a good salary to remain, but the best swordsman 
in France preferred to retire to Port-Royal des Champs, 
where he contented himself with the humble task of making 
boots for the nuns. That he did so, is probably what 

* p. 77, * Mimoires, p. 125. 



EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 129 

induced the Jesuits, hearing of the labours of the Solitaires in 
all directions, and being jealous of their spirituality, to mock 
at them, calling them Sahotiers, asserting that to learn to 
make sabots one should go to Port-Royal. As a matter 
of fact, although the Solitaires were not too proud to 
undertake any kind of work, they did not make wooden 
shoes, the wood of the country not being adapted to 
their manufacture. Not long after the publication of the 
Book of the Frequent Communion, M. d'Andilly finally 
fulfilled the last wish of St. Cyran, and retired definitely 
from the world of which he was such an ornament. On 
going to take leave of the Queen-Mother, he begged her not 
to believe the story of the Sabots. 

" If," he said, " your Majesty should hear that the Soli- 
taires cultivate the growing of fruit on walls, it is true, and 
I shaU hope to induce you to eat some of the product of their 
espaliers." ^ 

Some people were malicious enough to say that it was un- 
satisfied ambition which drove Mere Ang clique's brother into 
the arms of Port-Royal. 2 And certainly, although he had 
filled important positions at Court, being associated with the 
Intendant of Finances, Intendant General in the household of 
Gaston d'Orleans, and then called from his retirement at 
Pomponne, like Cincinnatus of old, to become Intendant to 
the Armies of the Rhine, Robert d'Andilly had greater 
certainty of shining at Port-Royal, where he could act as the 
chief of a powerful party. Unquestionably he had a touch 
of worldliness in his character, which caused him to wish to 
shine even in religious circles, yet he too believed most firmly 
in the necessity of the action of Divine Grace. 

Yet speaking of his friend, St. Cyran had said : 

** It is true he has not the virtue of an anchorite or of a 
saint, but I know no man of his condition so solidly virtuous." ' 

And he too must have experienced conversion on 
entering Port-Royal, for he acknowledged that it was 

1 Du Fosse, Mimoires, i. pp. 1 31-134. 

2 Biographical Notice preceding the Michaud and Poujoulat edition of 
Mimoires d'Andilly. 

3 Lettre du Fevrier, 1642. 

9 



130 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

grace and not human persuasion which touches the heart of 
sinners. 1 

The story is told that one day in M. d'Andilly's presence 
somebody, apropos of the Frequent Communion, expressed 
surprise that a young man Hke Antoine Arnauld, then thirty- 
two, who had hardly left the schools and with no knowledge 
of the world, could have written so well and so gracefully. 
M. d'Andilly replied that there was no occasion for astonish- 
ment, his brother having 

'' simply spoken the language of his house." 

This remark was greatly a matter of family loyalty, for at the 
bottom M. d'Andilly was at the antipodes from the youngest 
Arnauld both in literature and the letter of his religion. In 
literature he belonged to the style of the previous century, 
which was essentially polite and polished, grandiloquent 
and panegyrical, while Antoine went to the extreme of direct- 
ness and accuracy. The two differed also in a feeling of 
delicacy. M. d'Andilly having made promises to the Court 
for himself and others, was outraged that Antoine would not 
keep them, and disliking publicity, Antoine on the contrary 
wished all the world to hear his criticisms and declarations of 
faith. Some rather hard words passed between the brothers 
in this connection. 

M. d'Andilly's " Peres des Deserts " — a translation of the 
lives by different authors of the various hermits and solitaires 
of the Thebaide of Syria — ^written shortly after entering Port- 
Royal, furnishes the writer's true criticism of his brother's 
work, and while revising and correcting the formidable 
qualities of the Book of the Frequent Communion, it also 
aided its effect from the standpoint of gentleness and 
edification. Instead of using dogma to enforce his ideas of 
the utility of penitence and religion, M. d'Andilly tried to 
convince by citation of example and persuasion. He was not 
a profound theologian like Arnauld, but his style, by its charm 
and simplicity, probably appealed to quite as many hearts 
as did the sterner rigorism of his younger brother. 

Fifty-seven years of age when he retired to Port-Royal, 
for twenty-eight years M. d'Andilly's personality lent a 
glamour of elegance and politeness to the aridity and barren- 

1 Lettre a une Religieuse, 15 Mai 1640. 




ROBERT ARNAULD D'ANDILLY 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JACQUES LUBIN 



EFFECT OF " BOOK OF FREQUENT COMMUNION " 131 

ness of the Desert. With all his accustomed enthusiasm 
he threw himself into the life of the Solitaires, in which he 
was even the means of interesting such men of letters as 
Gomberville, Chapelain, etc. Yet he did not confine himself 
to literary and devotional pursuits, he was also of practical 
benefit, and it was mainly through his efforts that the '' vallon 
affreux *' was eventually turned into a Thebaide, for with 
an excess of enthusiasm which reacted to the financial detri- 
ment of his heir, the Abbe Arnauld, he used his own fortune 
toward the transforming of the pestilential marsh of the 
valley Yvette into a well-drained land. On his retirement 
this generous Solitaire had given his eldest son only enough 
money to keep him for a twelvemonth. The son, realizing 
his father's peculiarities, fortunately took his own loss of 
patrimony philosophically, saying : 

" His more than liberal humour did not quit him in the 
Desert ; he had need of all that he had left to satisfy it, and 
it was for me to retrench." ^ 

In his later years, gardening being his special joy, 
Jansenism as translated by M. d'Andilly, was but one long 
pastoral idyll. Most of his time was spent out of doors, 
and here again his hobby was turned to both practical and 
ambitious uses. Soon becoming famed for the monster fruits 
he grew — ''fruits benits," Mazarin called them — ^we read of his 
sending specimens of his art and labour to the Court, and 
of distinguished members thereof paying him visits in return. 

That the whole Court held him in consideration is shown 
by the fact that when Cardinal Richelieu was thinking of 
having St. Cyran arrested, and after the resolution to do so 
had been made between him, Pere Joseph, and M. Desnoyers, 
they could not help saying among themselves : 

" But what wiU M. d'Andilly say ? " 2 

His credit with the Queen-Mother was well-known. In 
addition to a naturally pious inclination proceeding from her 
education under the Spanish Jesuits, Anne of Austria had been 
forced into a more serious consideration of the things of the 
other world, through Richelieu's animosity and the consequent 

* L'Abbe Arnauld, M^moires (Petitot), p. 221, 
' ILancelot, Mimoires, i. p. 90, 



T32 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

ill-will of Louis xiii. Thus in the crisis of her own peril, when 
suspected by Richelieu of treason to France in the matter of 
Spain, she had retired to a convent, and herself transferred 
the famous ninth century monastery of Val de Grace to the 
Rue St. Jacques, not far from Port-Royal de Paris and the 
Carmelites. In 1645 the first stone of the imposing church 
of the new Val de Grace was just being laid. Therefore, in 
the Jansenist quarrel just beginning, it was not strange that 
Anne of Austria should have been heated against those 
accused of infidelity to the power she had been taught all her 
life to venerate, the Papacy. " Fie ! Fie ! the Grace ! " she 
said in contemptuous tones. On his part Cardinal Mazarin 
expressed it openly as his opinion that the very women who 
were making such an ado about the whole matter understood 
no more of it than he did ! ^ 

But whatever they thought of the other Messieurs and the 
doctrines of Port-Royal in general, both Anne of Austria and 
Mazarin always had the utmost respect and friendship for 
M. d'Andilly. His memory restrained them in many things 
they might have done. 

" The Queen," said Mazarin, " is admirable in the affairs 
of the Jansenists. When one speaks in general, she wishes 
they might all be exterminated, but when it is proposed to 
her to ruin several, and that one must begin with M. d'Andilly, 
she at once exclaims that they are too fine people, and too good 
subjects of the King." 2 

1 Madame de Motteville, MSmoires. 

2 Gerberon, Histoire du Jansenisme, tome ii. p. ■^yy. 



CHAPTER IX 

. THE PETITES ECOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 

I. History, Masters, and Methods 

" Sans r utile secours de 1' education. 
Cast en vain que I'eclat d'une haute puissance 
Est jointe a plus d'un million." 

Pannard 

IN Savoy, on the borders of France and Italy, where 
the Alps seem to reach up almost to the sky, lies the 
old town of Annecy. Here, dm-ing the year 1603, on 
fete days and Sundays, the Savoyards grew accustomed to 
seeing a young man dressed in a cassock going about the streets 
sounding a bell and crying : 

" A la doctrine Chrestienne, a la doctrine Chrestienne ! 
On vous enseignera le chemin de Paradis ! " 

Round the herald's neck was a placard bearing the words 
" Jesus " and " Marie '* written in letters of gold, and the en- 
ticing invitation came from St. Frangois de Sales, Bishop of 
Geneva, resident at Annecy, who, with the idea of educating 
the people of his diocese in the Church catechism, began by 
teaching the children the principles of the faith. 

An hour after the herald had thus poetically announced 
the class the holy Bishop would mount into his pulpit, and 
there, raised a few feet above them, expound to his little 
audience the grave questions of Church doctrine " familiarly," 
as his biographer tells us, himself becoming a child again. ^ 

The theology of Jansenius and St. Cyran gave them a 
peculiar outlook on education. It was a stern and uncom- 
promising doctrine indeed that could, in an inexorable carrying 
out of the strictest dogmas of the faith, condemn to eternal 

' Louis de la Rividre, Vie de Si. Franfois de Sales, p. 442. 
133 



134 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

damnation innocent infants dying without baptism. Other 
parties in the Church ignored the letter of this law, but not so 
Cornelius Janssen. He held to it, as to other ancient prin- 
ciples, with the tenacity of the unflinching moralist he was. 
Yet neither of the two men had been oblivious of the fact that 
if their theories of reform were to be permanent in influence 
they must be imprinted on the pliant mind of the young. 

Thus, one of the most characteristic developments of the 
whole system of Jansenism was its training of youth, and the 
Petites £coles were founded with the desire, not so much of 
gaining Heaven, as of avoiding Hell. They were peculiarly 
the creation of St. Cyran,^ whose aim was to keep these little 
ones in the state of innocence and holiness in which Baptism 
had placed them. 

Before his imprisonment the Abbe had himself begun the 
work of teaching by the education of two nephews of his own, 
with whom he associated Jerome and Thierry Bignon, sons 
of the Advocate-General of France, afterward adding to these 
pupils two other boys. With the recluses also, almost from 
the moment of their retirement at Port-Royal de Paris, the 
pedagogic element had always been present, and Lancelot tells 
us that at that early time there had been a few pupils both 
within and without the monastery. In the progress of these 
young people, and especially the outside class, St Cyran 
naturally took a great interest, but again, unlike St Frangois, 
there was no tenderness in his treatment of them. For him the 
word " Charity " did not spell love, but stem, implacable duty. 
Moreover, albeit sincerely fond of children, he could not, in 
justice to the tenets of his faith, think otherwise than his friend. 

" The Devil," he said, " goes the rounds without, attacking 
children. They do not fight him, so one must combat him 
for them." 

Thus he was ever intent on the terrible task of defeating 
Nature in its effort to corrupt their innocence. 

1 In a letter to M, de Rebours from Vincennes {Nicrologe, ii. p. 46), St. 
Cyran exclaimed: " I wish you could read in my heart the affection I bear, 
children. ... I had made the design of building a house which would have 
been like a seminary for the Church, in order to preserve there the innocence 
of children, without which I reaUze better every day that it is difficult for 
them to become good priests (clercs). . . . This design was ruined by my 
imprisonment." 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 135 

As early as 1643 we read of three young Du Fosses, to- 
gether with an Arnauld d'Andilly called Villeneuve, and two 
Bignons, being sent under the guidance of Singlin down to 
Port-Royal des Champs. Pierre Thomas du Fosse, who 
followed the vicissitudes of the schools throughout their 
troubled and migratory history, describes the feelings of him- 
self and his comrades in seeing the Desert.^ The sight of the 
old monastery, situated in a wild spot with mountains nearly 
falling on its head, its pond stagnant, its gardens covered with 
rubbish, full of weeds, the ruined buildings teeming with vipers, 
filled the lads with loneliness and despair. 

During the year of their stay at Port-Royal des Champs 
this loneliness was much mitigated by the delight of frequent 
walks with Le Maitre and Sericourt, whom they adored. But 
the really bright side of the picture of the life of these boys 
in the Desert brings us back to the fine old Abbey Church, 
from which the white habits and quiet presence of the gentle 
nuns had so long been absent. On Sundays and fete days 
Mass was said here in all formality, and De Selles, a clever 
preceptor in every way, but especially skilled in music, led 
his pupils in the chanting of the Canticles. Their religious 
instructor was M. de Bascle, the text-book of devotion, 
St. Cyran's Theologie Familiere, written at the request of 
M. Bignon for his two sons. At this time the precepts the 
tutors wished most to instil into their pupils' minds were : 

" The fear of God, the shunning of sin, and a very great 
horror of lying." 

But theological questions, such as free-will, predestination, etc., 
were never less discussed than in their midst.^ 

Still the boys were not sorry when the storm following the 
appearance of the Book of the Frequent Communion caused them 
to be sent to Chesnai, a little village only a quarter of a league 
from Versailles, whence after six months they returned to 
Port Royal des Champs. It had now become evident, however, 
that no real education could be given under such desultory con- 
ditions. To promote genuine zeal and enthusiasm for study, 
both consecutive regular work and emulation were essential, 
so as the nuns were now thinking of returning to Port-Royal 
des Champs, and the atmosphere of Paris for the time less 

^ Mimoires, i. pp. 60-61. 2 d^ Fosse, Memoires, i. p. 100. 



136 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

inimical, in 1648 the pupils were transferred to Paris. On 
removal there, the schools were inaugurated in a large and 
commodious mansion situated in the Rue Cul de Sac St. 
Dominique de F Enter in the St. Jacques quarter. Formerly 
the property of M. Lambert, brother-in-law of M. Arnauld's 
host during the storm of the Frequent Communion, this house 
had a large court, as well as a spacious and delightful garden. 
Four roomy chambers were made into class-rooms, and one 
master with his six pupils installed in each. And with this 
translation to the great city, three years after the death of 
their originator, the history of the Petites ficoles really begins. 
Then they were first organized, and received a distinct character 
of their own. 

The first and most important matter was to find instructors 
who combined capacity, discretion and disinterestedness with 
godliness. In a letter to M. de Rebours from Vincennes, 
St. Cyran had given definite expression to his belief that 
as children needed constant supervision, no one preceptor 
should have more than six pupils under his charge. Strange 
to say, this same theory had previously been advocated by 
no less a person than Erasmus in his Traitesur le Manage 
Chretien : 

" Thus," he said, " one procures a life in common at an 
age when gaiety and pleasure are quite proper, and at the 
same time the attention of the preceptor may rest on each 
individual child. In short, one easily avoids the corruption 
born of too large a number." 

This fact was borne in mind in arranging class rooms, etc., 
and the four teachers who first took up the charge — 
Lancelot, Nicole, Guyot, and Coustel, with M. Walon de 
Beaupuis at their head, were striking examples of homely 
piety and holiness. They were preceptors rather than pro- 
fessors ; and in their intercourse with these young spirits 
there was no familiarity, for in the child they honoured 

** innocence and the Holy Spirit which dwelt therein." 

Indeed there might have been written over the door of this 
house the motto : 

" Vigilance, respect for childhood, parental tenderness." ^ 

1 Du Fosse, Memoir es, i. p. 165. 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 137 

No preceptor was ever more honoured and loved than the 
Director of the schools, M. Walon de Beaupuis ; and if on 
their part the pupils adored their master, he reciprocated their 
affection by a lifelong devotion. On the destruction of the 
Petites ficoles, M. de Beaupuis was for some time associated 
with Pascal in Paris, where he helped to educate the latter's 
nephews, and was active in efforts to alleviate the persecutions 
of the nuns. Being ordained priest six years afterward, he 
went back to his native town of Beauvais, where, serving for 
ten years in the Church, he become at last Superior of the 
Seminary, where he in turn was followed by the hatred of 
enemies of the Jansenists, losing his position, and being obliged 
to retire quietly to his sister's house in Beauvais. Here he 
lived twenty-nine years longer, carrying out as best he might 
the austerities and habits of his early retreat at Port-Royal 
des Champs.i It was his custom to rise every day at four 
o'clock, when he spent many hours in work on the Fathers 
or the Apostles of the Church. When reading he always 
stood at a high desk, sitting down only to write. His room 
was never heated, even in the coldest winters, and the only 
recreation he ever allowed himself was a short visit each 
summer to Port-Royal des Champs, there to renew the good 
influences he had originally imbibed. Until the latter part 
of his life, he made this journey on foot and fasting. He 
died at the age of eighty-seven, the very year of the destruction 
of Port-Royal (1709). 

The salient quality of Claude Lancelot, an ideal pedagogue, 
was simplicity. He possessed, moreover, says M. Jules Le- 
maitre,2 two gifts of the spirit: tears and laughter. Unfortun- 
ately, Lancelot lacked altogether the qualities of leadership. 
His was naturally always the second, never the first place. 
Posterity is grateful to him for the writing of memoirs which 
depict especially the life and character of M. de St. Cjnran, 
his admiration and model in all things. To Lancelot, St. 
Cyran divulged most fully his ideas on education, and it was 
Lancelot's mind too which ably and surely worked out those 
methods of study which have made the permanent fame 
of the Petites ficoles. Although assisted by Nicole, De 

1 Supplement au Necrologe, pp. 365-388. Nicole said that the hfe of 
M. de Beaupuis was in itself a kind of miracle. 
^ Jean Racine, p. 15. 



138 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Saci, Arnauld, and even Pascal, to him were due in reality 
the series of text-books called Les Methodes de Port- 
Royal, not printed for the most part until after the 
destruction of the schools, but practically worked and 
tested throughout the fifteen years of their existence. 
These methods consisted in Latin, Greek, Italian, and Spanish 
Grammars. 

Opinions differ much with regard to Pierre Nicole, who, called 
in soon after the foundation of the schools to assist Lancelot, was 
so much admired by Madame de Sevigne that to her daughter 
she spoke of him as '* tout divin," and declared that she wished 
she could make a bouillon of one of his Moral Essays and 
swaUow it ! The historian Louis Veuillot caUs him " the 
coldest, greyest, heaviest, and most insupportable of all the 
bores of a boring community." Yet, if his books were dull, 
Nicole himself was one of the most peculiar and interesting 
of the Port-Royalists. A prodigy in Greek and Latin, at the 
age of fourteen Nicole had been able to explain the great 
writers of both languages. Sent to Paris for a course in 
philosophy, he made acquaintance with the Solitaires, who, 
when the Petites ficoles were started, gave him the class from 
which issued Angran, Tillemont, and finally Racine himself. 
That Nicole was the master of the great poet, constitutes, 
said Mersan,! his best claim to the remembrance of 
posterity. 

Nicole's manner of teaching his pupils the Humanities 
was first to familiarize them with Quintilian, Cicero, Virgil, 
and the Art Poetique of Horace, pointing out passages parti- 
cularly capable of forming the mind and fixing the attention, 
after which he would impress upon them the first rules for the 
Art of Thinking. In all cases, Nicole's pupils were free to 
ask questions and inaugurate discussion, and his simple 
methods of teaching were perfectly in accord with the prin- 
ciples of the Petites ficoles in general. 

Of Guyot, little is known ; and, as he is not noticed in the 
Necrologe, we conclude that this fourth master of the Petites 
ficoles was in reality one of those weak souls who did not 
persevere — nay, even worse— that he went over to the stronger 
side. For in 1666, in an inscription of one of his books, 
Epitre dedicatoire au Comte de Montauhon, he seems to have 

1 Introduction to Pensees de Nicole, p. 16. 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 139 

eulogized the rival college of Claremont (now Lycee Louis le 
Grand) as 

" that celebrated school which piety dedicated to science and 
virtue ! " ^ 

After leaving Port-Royal, Guyot was attached to the Uni- 
versity at Paris, and had relations with many distinguished 
people. He died thirty- two years later. 

Coustel, on the contrary, was of a faithful and truly pious 
nature, his countryman M. de Beaupuis being his model. 
His life was spent in the quiet paths of the scholar and Chris- 
tian, his Regies de V education des En/ants, written after the 
destruction of the ficoles, being his only step into publicity. 
Otherwise, his light was hidden in the silence of the un- 
obtrusive. 

Besides these masters, in the early days there was also a 
M. le Feure, whom Du Fosse extols as 

" gentle, honest, of a noble nature, and much elevated above 
the common." ^ 

This man, of rounded powers, was a good humanist, a clever 
philosopher, a learned theologian, and accomplished as an 
historian. Also conversant with astronomy, he knew some- 
thing of medicine from the botanical point of view. 

A renowned associate of Ces Messieurs, and one of the best 
teachers of the Petites ficoles, was the memoirist, Nicolas 
Fontaine. Losing his father, a writing-master of Paris, when 
he was very young, the boy was brought up by the Cure of 
St. Merry, who finally took him, a youth of nineteen, to Port- 
Royal des Champs, where, joining the Solitaires, he at once 
showed himself their humble friend, always ready to do their 
bidding in merging his own individuality. Becoming a tutor 
at the schools, he in his turn was directed by De Saci, who 
impregnated the younger man with his own peculiar theories 
with regard to education, saying to his disciple that if he (De 
Saci) were free to dispose of his time, he would gladly become 
the principal director of 

" these little souls, in whom it is sometimes more necessary 
to combat the enemy than in the largest. ' ^ 

^ Magazin EncyclopMique, Aug. 1813, "Guyot et ses OEuvres," Barbier. 

2 Memoires, i. p. 167. 

^ Fontaine, Memoires, ii. p. 55. 



140 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

According to his own account, Fontaine taught Cicero and 
Virgil. 

The later history of this, De Saci's devoted friend and 
fellow-prisoner of the Bastille, reminds one of the Solitaires' 
universal custom, due both to modesty and prudence, of dis- 
guising their identity under fictitious names. On becoming 
the secretary of De Saci, Fontaine not only loses his individual- 
ity in that of his greater master, but disappears entirely under 
a variety of cognomens. Neither a very good theologian 
nor a skilled Hellenist, his Memoires are a most valuable 
contribution to the history of Port-Royal. In his day, they 
were not so appreciated as they are now. They were then 
considered to have " neither order, chronology, nor continued 
narration." Sainte-Beuve's judgment, on the contrary, classes 
them very high. 

" Fontaine," he says, " tells us more in a few pages than 
Racine in the whole of his elegant Abrege. . . . The senti- 
ment of these solitary lives breathes in them ; we hear Pascal 
and de Saci talk, we see d'Andilly smilingly rise and come 
toward us the length of his espaliers in bloom." ^ 

The ideal of the system of training to be pursued at the 
Petites £coles was threefold. The first design was expressed 
by an article written by M. de Sainte-Marthe in the Necrologe 
of Port-Royal, wherein the primary object in the establishing 
was expressly stated to be the raising of young people in the 
fear of God. Pointing out the dangers to which in other 
colleges and schools youth is subject, M. de Sainte-Marthe goes 
on to lament the fact that, seeing this menace, no one was 
striving to prevent it, there being nothing in the world in which 
people seemed so little interested as man's perdition. ^ 

The second ideal brings us to the purely literary side of the 
movement. This had for its foundation a very great, if hidden, 
ambition : that of polishing and humanizing men of letters. ^ 

The third ideal was the production not merely of scientists 
and grammarians, but men ! 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. pp. 468-588. 

2 Necrologe de VAhhaie de Port-Royal des Champs, ii. p. 48. 

3 Hallam says [Literature of Europe, ii. p. 273) : " Before the Jansenists, 
the Jesuits had long been conspicuously the classical scholars of France. 
In their colleges, the purest and most elegant Latinity was supposed to be 
found. The Jansenists appeared ready at one time to wrest this palm from 
their inveterate foes." 



: THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 141 

In the Petites ficoles, reform in teaching was logically 
begun with primary education, and initiated in that first step 
in the acquirement of knowledge, the alphabet. Seeing little 
children knitting their brows and biting their lips in their 
efforts to spell, Pascal set his great mind to thinking out a 
way to help them in their difficulties. That he succeeded in 
the opinion of Port-Royal, is shown by the fact that at a crisis 
in his history Arnauld himself — on the very day, indeed, after 
the Sorbonne had pronounced its last sentence against him, 
and he had fled into hiding — wrote to his niece, Mere Angelique 
de St. Jean : 

" You will smile at what gives me occasion to write you. 
There is a little boy here of about twelve years who cannot 
read. I would like to try if he might not learn by M. Pascal's 
method. This is why I beg you to finish what you have 
already begun, and put it in writing, and send it to us," ^ 

Pascal's method was very similar to the phonetic system used 
to-day, and consisted in a combination of consonants with 
vowels and diphthongs, avoiding harsh and difficult sounds in 
spelling. 

Once having settled this initial difficulty, the next advance 
was made by teaching children to read, not as formerly in 
Latin, which took two or three years, but in their own tongue. 
They were then given good French translations of the best 
classical authors, prepared by Ces Messieurs, who at the same 
time took care to expiurgate anything that might corrupt the 
innocence of youth. Thus, the pupils not only learned to be 
familiar with subjects of which they were later to read more 
in their Latin books, but also to themselves speak correctly. 

After this grounding in their own, the study of other 
languages was the next step in their evolution, and here too 
French was used for rules and explanations — an innovation 
in the method of education of that day. The text-books 
excelled in lucidity, good arrangement, and erudition, and for 
the first time the so-called " natural " method of study was 
introduced ^ on the lines of modern inductive method. 

* Letter of Jan. 31, 1656. 

2 The following eulogy was paid the Methods of Port-Royal by Barbier, 
an otherwise anti-Jansenist writer : " Up to to-day enough emphasis has 
not been put on the services rendered to the French language and to public 
instruction by the estabUshment of the Petites ficoles of Port-Royal ... it 
is to the mode of teaching followed in these schools that we owe methods io 



142 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Although Lancelot's Latin Grammar was alleged to have 
eclipsed every previous work of the kind, his Greek Grammar 
was, according to competent critics, even finer, and by some 
considered the best work of its author. Lancelot was also 
in a measure responsible for a more important book than 
either the Greek or Latin Grammar. This was the *' General 
Grammar," an outcome of talks with Arnauld on the subject 
of the formation of the art of speaking. Struck with the 
learned Doctor's reasoning, Lancelot induced him to dictate 
the matter during his leisure hours. 

The General Grammar leads naturally up to the Logic, 
the most celebrated of the Port-Royal pedagogic attempts, 
and that which has, perhaps, the greatest value to-day.^ 
When they came to write the Logic, or the Art of Thinking, 
Ces Messieurs undoubtedly sought the advice of Pascal ; and 
not only were his reflections on the geometrical method used, 
but his Art de Persuader, founded on 

" the knowledge of all that passes in the innermost parts of 
man, and which he scarcely ever knows " 

was added. 

The real foundation of the Logic was Descartes' Discours 
de la Methode ; and, divided into four parts, it considers the 
operations of the mind under the four aspects of conception, 
judgment, reasoning, and ordination. Following Descartes, 
it tries to prove that all ideas do not come from the senses, 
but that there are some absolutely independent of any images. 

In this book the ambition of Ces Messieurs took a great 
leap, and aimed at accomplishing no less a task than that of 
forming men ! In later years, Jean Jacques Rousseau, the 
most famous of educators, expressed the same object : 

" Whether one destines my pupil for the sword, the Church, 
or the Bar, it matters little. . . . Nature calls him to human 
life ; to live is the trade that I wish to teach him. In leaving 
my hands, he will not be, I acknowledge, either magistrate, 
soldier or priest ; primarily, he will be a man." ^ 

the study of the languages of Greek and Latin which to-day hold the first 

rank among productions of this kind" {Magazin Encyclopidique, Aug. 1813). 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 542. 2 £fniie^ i. p. u. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PETITES £COLES OF PORT-ROYAL 
11. End, Results, and Pupils 

" Rien n'est plus difficile que de se proportionner a 1' esprit des enfants; et 
c'est avec raison que Montaigne a dit que c'est I'effet d'une S,me forte et 
bien elevee de se pouvoir accommoder a ces allures pueriles." 

Nicole, PensSes 

BY this time their innovations in the method of study 
had become noised abroad, and their success — notably 
the fact that Lancelot's Latin method, dedicated to the 
King, was used in Louis xiv's education — made many enemies 
for the pedants of Port-Royal. These enemies, who, as a 
writer in the Necrologe naively said, always wished to be the 
only ones to do good,^ now plotted their ruin and extinction, 
and in 1648 a visit was made to the Rue St. Dominique de 
TEnfer by the Lieutenant Civil to spy out the ground. For- 
tunately, he found nothing suspicious, but, shortly after the 
beginning of the Fronde, Paris being thought imt enable, 
Le Feure's class was taken to the town of Magny, near Port- 
Royal des Champs, where the pious cure of the place, M. 
Retard, aided in the teaching. Here they stayed six months, 
until the death of Le Feure, when they removed to Les Granges. 
The next occurrence to disturb work in the schools was 
the Second War of the Fronde, which necessitated various 
changes of domicile, and brought joy to the souls of the lads 
who were young enough to enjoy the excitement surrounding 
them. Du Fosse describes in a lively manner the quartering 
of a regiment of cavalry at Les Granges, and the devastation 
the soldiers wrought in that quiet place, which they left more 
like a stable than a Christian retreat. ^ 

* SuppUment au Nicrologe, p. 61. * M^moires, i. p. 224. 

M3 



144 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Indeed, from the time of leaving their Paris home, the 
schools were a divided institution, obliged to take root 
wherever they could. Interrupted, hounded, persecuted on 
all sides, their only flourishing and stationary period had been 
the short four years at the Rue St. Dominique. Besides the 
principal branches at Les Granges and Chesnai, there were 
several allied institutions at Trous, near Chevreuse, and at 
Sevrans, near Livry, the masters in each case being of the 
same stamp as the early ones, education proceeding under the 
Port-Royal ideals. 

Finally, the King's mind having become completely bisased 
by the false and garbled reports of the association of many 
dangerous persons together in these schools, he was induced 
to issue an order commanding their dispersion. Before this 
could be put into execution, however, an untoward event 
happened which delayed the ruin for two years. As this 
accident — most mortifying for the enemies of the Jansenists 
in causing the death, at the College of Clermont, of no other 
than the nephew of Mazarin, Alphonse Mancini — ^was due 
solely to carelessness, the Jesuits were obliged, until the 
effect should have been somewhat forgotten, to cease their 
active campaign against the Petites ficoles. It was not until 
two years later the blow fell, and that the Lieutenant Civil 
appearing at Chesnai, dispersed the last of the pupils. 

To determine the practical success of the Petites 6coles, 
we must examine the product of this education : the students 
themselves, who, after all, together with the Solitaires, make 
up the " real " Port-Royal. These may, in general, be divided 
into three classes : 

First, those desultory ones, who seem almost to have 
drifted into the institution by chance, and whose real history 
touched very slightly on the later destiny of Port -Royal. 

Secondly, sons of the true friends and benefactors of the 
monastery, and put into the schools out of a sincere emotion 
and enthusiasm on the part of the parents. 

Thirdly, pupils who in themselves allied by spirit 
and independent impulse, best embody the results of the 
teaching.^ 

Among the sensational stories current concerning the 
illustrious men who at one time or another visited Port-Royal's 
1 3ainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. pp. 468-588. 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 145 

pepini^re (nursery), as the Petites ficoles have been called, 
two stand out. One is that the Duke of Monmouth, natural 
son of Charles 11, stayed for some time at Chesnai under M. de 
Beaupuis. He is said to have been brought to France at the 
age of nine, and to have remained there two years, either at the 
Academic de Juilly or at Chesnai. 

The other story concerns another titled Englishman, 
M. Stucirt d'Aubigny, son of the Duke of Lennox and Rich- 
mond. This young aristocrat was early taken to France, 
and placed in the Petites ficoles. On leaving the schools, his 
career was full of incident. He became Canon of Notre-Dame, 
and on the restoration of Charles 11 was made Grand Almoner 
to the Queen of England. In the life of the Court and the 
thick of important political affairs, he must have forgotten to 
a great extent his early schooldays. In 1665, this man, whom 
Sainte-Beuve depicts as the tj^e of the amiable gentleman 
of the seventeenth century, died at the moment he was about 
to realize his life's ambition. For even as the courier of the 
Pope was ringing at his door to bring him a Cardinal's hat, 
he breathed his last sigh. 

In the same category with these aristocratic offshoots of 
Port-Royal, were Lancelot's later pupils, the young Due de 
Chevreuse and the two Princes de Conti. 

The roU of pupils of the second class begins with the name 
of Bignon, and this family was connected with Port- Royal by 
ties of worldly aUiance and relationship, as opposed to the 
Amaulds, its " core and stem." Both Bignon boys had dis- 
tinguished careers, Jerome succeeding his father as Advocate- 
General of France, Thierry occupying a no less important 
position in the State : that of First President of the Grand 
Conseil. Neither ever betrayed the principles of his education, 
remaining faithful to Port-Royal to the end. 

In the train of these lads followed a number of pupils, 
who also became known in the service of the Law and the 
State. To this second class too belonged the Periers, 
Pascal's relations, fitienne, his nephew, being among the 
pupils sent to Chesnai, and a member of the so-called 
" Fourth Chamber," composed of all the best pupils, Racine 
among the number. 

M. Gentien Thomas du Fosse, head of the pious family 
of Rouen, which eventually came in a body under the influence 
10 



146 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of St. Cyran and the other messieurs, had primarily gone to 
Paris to see St. Cyran to complain of the conversion of the 
Cur6 of his parish, entailing the loss of his spiritual guide, 
and thus disturbing and angering him. On meeting the 
Abb6, then just out of prison, M. Thomas was completely 
won over : 

*' I thought I had come, sir," he said, " for my Cure, but 
I find it is for myself and my own salvation." ^ 

Returning to his home, this Maitre des Comptes at once made 
an inventory of the goods he considered not legitimately 
acquired, and of which he determined to dispossess himself, 
after which, devoting his own existence to charity and 
goodness, he sent three daughters and three sons to Port- 
Royal to be educated. Pierre Thomas du Fosse, youngest 
of the sons, was too modest to think of becoming a 
priest, so he remained in the schools until their dispersion, 
after which, as layman and scholar, he followed in the 
train of the Solitaires, aiding them with his friendship and 
S5mipathy, and sharing with them their exile and evil 
fortunes. 

The history of Villeneuve, the younger son of Robert 
d'Andilly, called the " Petit Jules," and one of Du Fosse's 
greatest comrades in the Rue Cul de Sac St. Dominique, from 
whom for ten long years he was inseparable, is rather pathetic. 
Le Petit Jules was very clever, especially in genealogy and 
heraldry, being also perfect in geography and history. Un- 
fortunately, obstinate like the rest of his race, this Arnauld 
took it into his head that he must go into the army. And so, 
just before the destruction of the schools, without regard to 
the wishes of his father, or to his very unsatisfactory quality 
of short-sightedness, which incapacitated him for leading 
soldiers, he put his idea into execution, and was killed in his 
first campaign. Some writers accuse his father, in permitting 
this step, of having been his executioner. In reality, finding 
his son bent on the project, M. d'AndiUy probably agreed, 
solely with the idea of stifling the lad's military taste by its 
very indulgence. Had he lived, Villeneuve would undoubtedly 
have returned to the piety taught him in the Petites Ecoles, 
and thus swelled the list of the faithful Amaulds. 

* Du Fosse, Mimoires, i. p. 45. 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 147 

Another comrade of Du Fosse was called Des Champs. 
In the memoirist's own words : 

" As our class was composed of the most advanced students, 
we sent our challenges of emulation to each other. It was 
M. Des Champs, a gentleman of the country of Caux, who 
particularly excelled in this kind of combat, having a lively 
and piquant mind, and a very fine poetical sense." ^ 

Coming now to the third class, we find foremost among all 
the serious pupils, Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont, called the 
type of the perfect pupil. His father, a Maitre des Requites, 
was the intimate friend of M. de Bemieres, and at the time 
of the Fronde it was these two officials who issued from the 
Palais de Justice in their robes of ofiice to protect the nuns 
of Port-Royal de Paris as they passed from the St. Jacques 
Quarter to the Rue St. Andre des Arcs. 

Tillemont was born at Paris in 1637, and at nine years of 
age entered the Petites £coles. From the first, history was 
the study which most delighted him. Nicole, his master in 
logic, was much embarrassed by the questions of this pupil. 
At first he tried to answer in two words as he would any other, 
but finding that that would not do, he confessed that he 
never saw Tillemont approach without trembling to think 
that he might not be able to satisfy the boy's desire for know- 
ledge. Later on, by a singular irony of fate, when Nicole 
himself was engaged in a difficult controversy, it was Tillemont 
who came to the assistance of his former master with data 
and arguments. 

From the beginning, Tillemont found his particular voca- 
tion, and never left it. As he said one day to Marguerite 
Perier, Pascal's niece, from the age of fourteen he had neither 
read not studied anything, except as recreation, but what had 
relation to ecclesiastical history. His whole life was devotion 
to study to study's sake, and to religion. 2 He never left 
the straight but narrow path, and becoming a priest at the age 
of forty, obliged after two years to leave the little house he 

* MSmoires, i. p. 56. 

* " In your country house you were like a town situated on a mountain, 
like a lamp elevated on a chandelier, like a voice which cried from thence 
that each one remain in his place, and that no one goes from his place through 
impatience," said Fontaine of him {Memoires, ii. p. 70). 



148 ^W THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

had built within the walls^of Port-Royal des Champs just in 
front of the church, he retired to his estate of Tillemont, 
where he remained till his death. 

All his days were alike, the only bright gleam being his 
love for church music, which he not only understood perfectly, 
but himself composed. Loving children, their cries in the 
church did not shock him. On the contrary, he believed 
their presence sanctified the holy place. At Port-Royal, he 
loved to walk about the country, baton in hand, and if on 
the road between Chevreuse and Port-Royal he met children, 
he never failed to stop and talk to them. Encountering 
shepherds or cowherds with their cattle, he spoke to them of 
their souls. 

" The soul," he explained, " is more excellent than the 
sun, in fact the most beautiful thing in the world. But,'* 
he continued, thinking to inspire in these ignorant men a 
horror of evil, " sin so disfigures the soul as to render it more 
deformed than the most terrible beasts." ^ 

The last words of Tillemont were in eulogy of one of 
his fellow-pupils at the Petites £coles, and of the education 
there received. In his will, he expressed the lively desire 
to be buried beside the son of M. de Bernieres, 

" with whom," he said, " God had united me, taking me 
from the house of my father to give me an education for 
which I shall bless Him in all eternity. . . . having been 
raised by persons without ambition, who loved to serve God in 
spirit and in truth, in silence and in retreat." ^ 

The death-warrant of the Petites Ecoles had already been 
signed when in 1655 their real glory came to them in the 
person of a pupil of fifteen destined to be one of the greatest 
ornaments of France. This was Jean Racine, the author of 
Athalie. In him the schools of Port-Royal had their climax ; 
he was their swan-song, their triumphal chant, and the pain 
of annihilation was forgotten in having given birth to such a 
poet. Other pupils like Tillemont, Angran, Du Fosse, Fon- 
taine, were men to be proud of, but none coiild equal the 

* Tronchay, Vie de Le Nain de Tillemont, p. 69. 

* Tillemont was honoured by two epitaphs at Port-Royal. One was 
placed on his tomb in the church ; the other before the grille in the nuns' 
choir (see N&crologe, ii. p. 301). 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 149 

distinction of Racine, none so fully responds to the principles 
of their influence and teaching.^ 

Coming to them at the moment when all seemed to be 
over, he had yet belonged to Port-Royal even before his 
birth, for his father and mother were still under the influence 
which the holy Solitaires had cast over La Ferte Milon when 
Jean Racine was born. The youth of the great poet was 
thus entirely surrounded and enveloped by the spirit of 
Port-Royal.2 

When the boy was fifteen, by special favour the rules 
of the Petites ficoles, which stipulated that no children 
over ten years of age should be accepted, were broken in his 
favour, and Les Granges became his home. Here another 
turn of fortune awaited him, for at the time of his arrival 
at the farm above the monastery, the King's order for the 
dispersion of the pupils had been partially executed, and 
Racine found himself the sole pupil of four of the greatest 
masters of the Society, each of whom had a separate and 
special influence on his character : Nicole, Lancelot, Le 
Maitre, and Hamon. Presumably, no youth either before 
or since ever had such an education. As M. Jules Lemaitre 
says : 

" As instruction, it was unique, it was magnificent, it was 
more than princely. As religious teaching, it was intense." ^ 

The solitude of Port-Royal undoubtedly engendered in 
Racine's brain a habit of reverie which led to poetry. No 
wits themselves, these stern moralists yet by their education 
fostered in their gifted pupil a love for literature. More- 
over, their so carefully expmrgated Greek plays, which they 
gave him to read purely in order to learn the Greek language 
and style, unconsciously inspired in him a taste for the theatre. 
Thus Port-Royal pushed him out into the world. It bred in 
his passionate soul a desire for life and action. By stimu- 
lating the mystical side of his nature, it also awakened [his 
curiosity and imagination. 

^ And this is asserted in the face of Racine's latest biographer, M. Masson 
Forestier {Autour d'Un Racine inconnu), a descendant of his sister Marie, who 
has tried to prove Port-Royal to have had no part whatever in the formation 
of Jean^Racine. 

2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 84. ^ Jean Racine, p. 9. 



150 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Leaving Port-Royal after three years, and throwing himself 
into the world, the poet lived a life full of the joys and sorrows 
brought by a passionate and enthusiastic nature. Yet under- 
neath all his extravagances, all his joys and sorrows, there per- 
sisted an undercurrent of his youthful training, for it is an 
immutable law of nature that in later life the human being 
goes back to the precepts of its childhood. If that childhood had 
been carefully nourished and protected from evil, what happi- 
ness results from the command to become as a little child 
again. A childhood without innocence and piety brings an 
old age of unhappiness and despair. And, Port-Royal drew 
Racine back to itself with the surest magnet in the world : 
that of early influence imprinted on the white unwritten page 
of childhood, thus justifying the whole ideal of St. Cyran 
and his followers. In his darkest moments he unquestionably 
saw in dreams that | 

" Cloitre venerable, - 

Ces beaux lieux du Ciel bien aimes, 
Qui de cent temples animes 
Cachent la richesse adorable." ^ 

A modern writer has said very justly : 

" Whoever has passed through the hands of these excellent 
instructors, and been really touched, returns to them and to 
their spirit, at least in old age.** ^ 

In his Abrege Racine relates that those women of quality 
who had been educated at Port-Royal were ever ready in 
after life to testify to their gratitude and admiration for the 
training they had received. In the midst of the world, its 
gaieties, troubles, and distractions, these pupils never forgot 
that Jerusalem of their souls, for the education inside the 
monastery was in its way quite as excellent as that given in 
the Petites £coles, its great fault being that it had the 

1 From the Tenth Ode. 

2 Strowski in his Vie de St. Franpois de Sales says of Racine : " He did not 
preserve the fear of God and the horror of the last end his education taught 
him, but the habit of loving. See now how he returns to the sentiments 
of his youth " (p. 392). 

M. L6on S6ch6 confirmed this view of Racine in his article written in the 
Gaulois, April 25, 1899. He says : " The illustrious poet of Athalie experi- 
enced the influence of the Jansenist education he had received at first in his 
family, then at Port-Royal, and this influence threw into his soul such deep 
roots that no matter what he did he could never tear them out." 



THE PETITES fiCOLES OF PORT-ROYAL 151 

tendency to push girls into the religious life. Even their 
habits spoke of this tendency, for the white dress of the 
pupils did not differ essentially from that of the novices. 

On the whole, it is extraordinary that in their short exist- 
ence the Petite s £coles fulfilled more or less all the high ideals 
they had set themselves, and this without corporeal punish- 
ment, in a day when the Duke of Montausier felt privileged 
to cane his royal pupil, the Dauphin of France, for the least 
fault, and when Bossuet not only permitted the chastisement, 
but assisted Montausier in its execution. At Port-Royal, the 
greatest correction they could inflict was the threat of sending 
pupils back to their parents. Their whole idea was tolerance, 
together with " Patience and silence," the positive side of the 
task being fulfilled by awakening the intelHgence of each 
boy, and gradually implanting in his mind a love of good and 
a hatred of evil. 

When Pascal said : 

" Being denied the spur of envy and glory, the children 
of Port -Royal fall into listlessness." ^ 

he struck the criticism of the Petites ficoles. They lacked the 
modern spirit of emulation which can be translated by the 
word ambition. Wherefore, although famous, they were never 
brilliant, flourishing only in their own way and in the shadow. 
And in pondering the history of the schools ^ we seem at 
the end to have been brought back to St. Francois de Sales, 
whose simple theology rested on the love of God for man, and 
the duty of man toward his neighbour. For, leaving the 
stern doctrines of Jansenius and St. Cyran in their dealings 
with these young souls, the masters of the schools unconsciously 
reverted to the Charity which is Love — Love of God — and 
which is the only road to Paradise. 

^ PensSes, chaps, xxv.-lxv., edition variorum. 

2 For their continuation, see Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. iv. and Andre 
Hallays, Le P^lerinage de Port-Royal. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE RETURN OF THE NUNS TO PORT-ROYAL 
; DES CHAMPS 

"Le contentment on la joie interieur enait 6galement des realites et des 
chimdres. Lorsqu'elle vient des realites elle est plus raisonnable; elle Test 
moins lorsqu'elle est le produit des chimeres." 

Nicole, Pensies 

BY this time, thanks especially to M. d'Andilly's generous 
use of his own and his son's patrimony, the valley 
of the Yvette, no longer an arid, putrid wilder- 
ness, was a smiling, flowering valley. In remodelling the 
monastery on the banks of the treacherous pond, the Solitaires 
reverted to the fifth century of the Christian era ; and, as 
Robert d'Andilly tells us in his Peres du Desert, moulded the 
whole fashion of their lives on the example of the ancient 
Solitaires. In the early years of the Church, holy men had 
gone out into the Desert, and founded a new country for 
themselves — a land of simplicity, holiness, and peace. Owing 
to the efforts of the fifth-century Solitaires there thus sprang 
up miraculously in the country of Thebes a wonderful town 
called Oxyrinque. Within its walls lived twenty thousand 
Virgins and ten thousand Solitaires, and throughout the place 
no other sound was heard than the praises of God. Wholly 
Christian and wholly Catholic, this town was in reality one 
great Church, or City of God, a new and spiritual Jerusalem. 

" Is there," asked M. d'Andilly, '' anything more glorious 
to God than the victories and triumphs of this grace in these 
perfect models of all the Christian and religious virtues, the 
Christian Solitaires, who quitted the world inhabited by men 
to seek a new one uninhabited until then, and to live there 
like Jesus Christ with the beasts and with the angels ? " ^ 

^ Vies des Saints et des Saintes, p. 7. 
152 



THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 153 

How many pious souls have dreamed of the New Jerusalem ! 
How many have longed to build one on the earth with their 
own hands ! And the ideal picture of the Eternal City varies 
in the mind of each. As they worked in the heat of noonday 
in the valley of the river Yvette, striving to turn their Desert 
into a Thebaide, their little City of God into a New 
Jerusalem, the vision of St. John was the picture ever before 
the minds of the hermits of Port-Royal. It too was " four- 
square," surrounded by walls. Several great courts were 
enclosed by the Church and conventual buildings and formed 
the Cloister. On the north side of the outer court was the 
entrance of the monastery, the corps of buildings occupied by 
Ces Messieurs, the stables, and the forge. On the south side 
was the Church, which faced the east, and the Guests' Hall. 

The allurements of art were from the beginning fiercely 
debarred entrance into the monastery. Pursued as she was 
by the stern countenance of uncompromising Duty and Re- 
form, Beauty fled, ashamed to show her tempting face. There 
was not an article of luxury, not a sculptured stone, not a 
moulding. Only in the Church could be detected the slightest 
taint of that companion of the Good and the True which had 
worked such havoc in the Church of the early sixteenth 
century. In the course of time the proportions of the 
original fine Gothic edifice of the thirteenth century, built 
by Robert de Luzarches, had become falsified by Nature. 
And it was now felt that the sinking of the soil would 
soon necessitate the raising of the foundations twelve feet. 
But in spite of this disfigurement and its paucity of 
adornment the Church of Port-Royal was said to shame all 
other churches by its very simplicity, its lack of sumptuous 
ornament, which in other temples of worship attract the 
vulgar gaze of the world. Its altar-screen was of simple 
carpentry, enshrining a painting representing the Last 
Supper ; its single step leading to the High Altar was modest, 
indeed, compared with the high approaches of other churches. 
The wooden posts supporting the screen were at the same 
time supposed to act as chandelier, while the Host was 
suspended not in a costly tabernacle, but in a simple recep- 
tacle. As unique treasures it possessed but a few paintings by 
the artist peculiarly fitted to it, Philippe de Champagne, and 
the beautiful choir stalls presented by Jehanne the First. 



154 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

On the side of the church terminated by Philippe Auguste's 
Chapel of St. Lawrence, where were placed the numerous 
epitaphs and the enclosure made by the Cloisters, was the 
cemetery with its white crosses. Above the Cloisters were 
distributed the various rooms called as in all convents the 
Parloirs, those of St. Denis, St. Augustine, St. Peter, Paul and 
Michael. 

Inscriptions were the order of the day at the old monastery. 
Everywhere were pious words to remind the inmates of their 
high calling. On the arcades and four walls of the Cloister 
were such sentences as the following : 

" Riches ruin religious houses, and true poverty edifies and 
preserves them." 

" He who perseveres to the end shall be saved." 

" There are many called, but few chosen." 

Then, on the passage leading to the Church : 

" God is in his temple, let all the earth keep silence." 

" Think of God in all your ways, and He will Himself 
conduct your steps to Him." 

'* One must pray and never weary." 

In the Refectory were still other words of encouragement to 
good living : 

" Whether you eat, whether you drink, do all for the glory 
of God." 

" If any one would be great among you, let him be ready 
to serve you, and who would be the first among you, let him 
be the servant of all ; for the Son of Man did not come to be 
served, but to serve others." 

" The kingdom of God does not consist in drinking and 
eating, but in justice, in peace, and in the joy which the Holy 
Spirit gives." ^ 

On returning to Port-Royal de Paris in 1636, after the 

1 See Tronchay, Description of Port-Royal des Champs, pp. 214-220. 



.^' 



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PLAN OF THE ABBEY OF PORT ROYAL DES CHAMPS 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY MAGDELEINE HORTEMELS 



THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 155 

trouble with M. Zamet and Saint-Sacrement, Mere Ang^lique 
had been made Mistress of Novices, occupying herself in 
addition with the duty of holding conferences of spiritual 
encouragement for the nuns. But, at the expiration of Mere 
Agnes's second term as Abbess she resumed her old position 
at the head of the establishment. The quarrels at Saint- 
Sacrement not ceasing with M^re Angelique's departure, M. de 
Gondi, growing tired of disputes, shortly afterward disorgan- 
ized the elegant institution founded by the first Duchesse de 
Longueville, and transferred its nuns to Port-Royal de Paris. 
Not long afterwards it was finally decided at Rome that 
Saint-Sacrement, together with its property and obligations, 
should be regularly united with Port-Royal de Paris, the 
founders and benefactors thereupon agreeing that all funds 
should be used for the building of a new church. 

Accordingly, in 1646, the first stone of a beautiful edifice, 
designed by Lepautre, was laid by Mile, de Longueville, heiress 
of the Founder of Saint-Sacrement, and solemnly blessed by 
M. de Gondi, under the name of Saint-Sacrement. In the 
style of the Renaissance, this church was a most impressive 
structure, with a dome in the middle, and perfectly pro- 
portioned. In front of the altar on the ground floor were 
gratings shutting off the Choir of the Nuns, while above 
was a tribune from which another grating led into the 
Infirmary. 

An interesting fact connected with the union of Saint- 
Sacrement and Port-Royal was the change of habit it brought 
about. When the question was first agitated. Mere Angelique, 
always stern, was for retaining the ancient Bernardine scapulary 
of black, but many nuns, prominent among whom was the 
romantic Anne-Eugenie Arnauld, inclined toward the more 
picturesque garb of Saint-Sacrement. The matter was de- 
cided when by chance a box belonging to the disbanded 
monastery was opened, displaying the beautiful stuffs and 
colours formerly worn by these aristocratic sisters. ^ Accord- 
ingly, with great ceremony, laying aside their black robes for 
ever, the nuns of Port-Royal adopted the white scapulary 
with the scarlet cross on the breast, fulfilling a vision which 
had come to Madame Le Maitre eighteen years before, when 
she dreamed she saw the nuns thus apparelled. 

^ Mimoires et Relations, pp. 172-173. 



156 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

It seems that before his death St. Cyran had urged M^re 
Ang61ique to return to the Champs, and, having always re- 
gretted her old home, a visit made there in 1646, when she saw 
the improvements that had been made by the Solitaires, 
strengthened this desire in her. 

Two subsequent journeys filled her with an irresistible 
home-sickness. The silence, the reverence and devotion of 
even the servants about the place, who treated the nuns as 
if they were angels, struck deep into her heart. She felt 
she must return, so, permission having been obtained of the 
Archbishop, she and a number of the nuns made ready to 
go. On the eve of the 13th May 1648, the Coadjuteur 
of Paris, afterward Cardinal Retz, and destined to play 
so important a part in their history, came to say good- 
bye ; and the next morning Mere Angelique, accompanied 
by seven nuns and two working sisters, joyfully took the 
route toward Chevreuse and the Desert, leaving M^re 
Agnes with the nuns who did not wish to leave Paris 
behind.^ 

The reception at Les Champs was a solemn and impressive 
one. When at two o'clock in the afternoon the little band 
arrived, the bells were ringing, and two parties drawn up in 
welcome : one composed of the poor of the surrounding country, 
some of whom remembered the good Mother of twenty-two 
years before, and who now threw themselves at her feet, in 
glad greeting and reverence. The other detachment, com- 
prised of Ces Messieurs, was ranged behind a priest holding 
the cross. Without delay the nuns entered the Church, and 
there, the bells still ringing out joyously, they chanted their 
Te Deum of Thanksgiving. ^ 

In the old monastery that summer there reigned universal 
gladness and delight. The nuns were ecstatic over their 
return to the home they had always regretted, and its regener- 
ated condition made their life a continual paean of thankful^ 
ness. As Mere Angelique wrote to the Queen of Poland : 

'' One cannot imagine a more beautiful solitude. If our 
sisters had but experienced the peace of this place, I think 
they would have demanded of God wings of the dove that 
they might fly hither. But as God loves both houses, and 

* Lancelot, MSmoires, ii. p. 458. 
2 j^j^.^ i. p. 457. 



, THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 157 

wishes to be equally honoured in the two, He has not given 
the same inclination to all." 

And now, owing to the labours of the Solitaires, the 
monastery was truly a delicious spot. Near the Church was 
an abundant and limpid spring called " Mere Angelique's 
Fountain." Around it dwarf trees formed a charming 
promenade, while a little farther on a spot enclosed by the 
Cloisters had been given the name of the " Solitude." From 
the Cloisters the " Red Door " led into this shady wood, 
divided into a number of avenues, all called by different names, 
such as " The Strawberries," " The Elms," the " Espalier," 
" the Gooseberry Lane," etc. A rustic bridge led over the 
canal, and in the centre of the retreat stood a great cross. It 
was in a circle round this cross in the " Solitude " that the nuns 
used to love to gather with their needlework and even their 
spinning-wheels ; here they came for meditation, and here also 
they were allowed infrequent intercourse with those grandes 
dames from the outside world. 

The near neighbourhood of the nuns, of whom Le Maitre 
spoke in his oratorical style as *' om: ladies, our mistresses, and 
our queens," ^ had a peculiar effect on the Solitaires. It 
seemed to arouse in them a kind of old-time chivalry, this 
knightly feeling being exercised, however, at a distance, for 
on the arrival of the real inhabitants of the monastery the 
Hermits had been obliged to remove to the farm of Les Granges 
at the top of the hill, some of their number who could not 
find accommodation there being compelled to retire tempor- 
arily to Paris until such time as larger buildings could be 
erected for them at Les Granges. 

Mere Angelique did not approve of any communication 
between the two retreats. That Mere Agnes was as usual 
much more indulgent is proved by the following letter ad- 
dressed to Le Maitre during one of her visits to Les Champs : 

" My very dear Nephew, — I believe you think me 
returned to Paris, or that I am here to live like an excom- 
municated person, not having deigned to ask for me for such 
a long time. This is why, with authority of aunt and venerable 
old lady, I give you an appointment for to-day at noon in 
the Parloir Sainte Madeleine, where I shall make you re- 
proaches as to your retirement. Which does not prevent me 
from being Yours ever." ^ 

* In a letter to Madame de Saint Ange. 2 Letter of 15 October 1653. 



158 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

One of the questions which preoccupied the nuns just before 
their return to the country had been that of a Confessor. 
Ever since St. Cyran's imprisonment, M. Singlin had taken 
his place as Director for both the nuns and the SoUtaires, and 
was virtually Chief in the two establishments. In 1645, 
however, feeling the work too wearing, Singlin had sent a new 
Director to the Solitaires in the person of a very learned Canon 
of Beauvais called Manguelen. The most striking character- 
istics of this priest were a lack of outward enthusiasm and 
ill-health. His stay at Port-Royal des Champs was very 
short, for scarcely more than a year afterward he was stricken 
down with fever and died. In the meantime Singlin, pending 
the time when De Saci should have taken orders, resumed his 
former office. Before returning to the Champs, Mere Angelique 
had written to her brother Antoine, still in hiding after the 
Frequent Communion , begging him to leave his retreat and 
come to act as Confessor to her and her nuns. This Arnauld 
did in secret, feeling obliged to hide the fact of his presence at 
the monastery as much as possible. In December of the next 
year De Saci was ordained, and in January said his first Mass 
at Port-Royal des Champs. 

De Saci's is an interesting character to study as a contrast 
with that of his uncle, Antoine Arnauld, only a year older, 
whom he adored and defended, and whom, after the publi- 
cation of the Frequent Communion, he had accompanied 
into exile. He was Arnauld's opposite in everything. Most 
proper in every way, perfectly well ordered and poised, he 
was seemingly without that colour and flame of which Arnauld 
was full, undoubtedly heavy as he was at times. Sainte-Beuve 
summed up Arnauld's nephew as the 

" incarnation of morality, with a certain flavour of polite 
literature, the languages ; the whole dominated and controlled 
by faith." ^ 

De Saci's pupil, Du Fosse, attributed to his master, on the 
contrary, a mind full of fire, charm, and sprightliness, as well 
as of knowledge. On taking Holy Orders the conscientious 
Solitaire wished to rid himself of his too worldly ardour, and, 
although he soon managed to apparently do so, he was 
always able to resume it whenever he thought necessary. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 323. 



THE RETURN OF THE NUNS 159 

Possessed of a very St. Cyranesque idea^of the^Majesty^of 
God, his religion was so sincere and deep that it was his 
habit when talking with each person on his particular interest, 
— with Champagne on painting. Dr. Hamon on medicine, 
Pascal on philosophy, — always to bring round the conversation 
to God, and to make others talk of Him.^ 

While Arnauld was dazzled by the eclat attaching to the 
degree of Doctor of the Sorbonne, De Saci hated it. Arnauld 
loved noise and power ; De Saci shrank from any publicity. 
Arnauld delighted in forcible and hyperbolic language ; De 
Saci had an instinctive feeling for the value of words, and 
censured the foolhardiness of his brilliant uncle in giving pre- 
text to his enemies for criticism by couching his ideas and 
principles in words which could be misconstrued. 

" Not only the errors, but the imagination of men,'* said 
he, " must be combated." ^ 

When De Saci became Confessor at Les Champs and Les 
Granges, Le Maitre underwent one of the hardest tests of his 
penitence. How, accustomed as he was to St. Cyran and 
Singlin, could he reconcile himself to this new Confessor, a 
brother five years younger ? It is conceivable that a nature 
like that of Le Maitre, passionate, enthusiastic, and fiery, had 
little in common with the coolness, phlegm, and poise of De 
Saci. Thus, at first Antoine absolutely refused to confess to 
the new priest. Singlin exhorted, Le Maitre prayed for 
grace, and finally his repugnance vanished. Characteristically 
the convinced penitent chose his own way to show his sub- 
mission, and, selecting a passage from St. Chrysostom, he 
wrote on it a little treatise which he called " Traite de I'amitie 
Chretienne et spirituelle." 

" I cannot offer thee an imperfect present ; I am giving 
thee my heart where that flame burns : it is the original which 
God joins to the portrait," 

wrote Le Maitre. 

" My dear brother," answered De Saci, "at another time 
I would have told you that I could not thank you enough 

^ Fontaine, Mimoires, i. p. 339. 

* Lettre ^ M. Le Maitre, Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 326. 



i6o THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

for the present you have made me ; but now I think I am 
thanking you enough when I say to you that I have received 
it with an extreme joy, for I believe my own will be yours, 
and that you will find your satisfaction in that which you 
have given me." ^ 

1 Fontaine, M&moifes, i. p. 377. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE FRONDE 

" They which bnilded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those 
that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with 
the other hand held a weapon." Nehemiah iv. 17 

THE First War of the Fronde followed closely upon the 
return of the nuns to Port- Royal des Champs. At 
fu-st, the recluses on the hill were so far away from 
the plots, disputes, gallantry, noise, and humour of the wars 
of Paris, that the news of victories, defeats, or brilliant sallies 
hardly reached their ears, except as a vague menace against 
their beloved retreat. When this threat really came near 
enough to pierce the silence or interrupt the murmur of their 
chanting, then indeed the spirit of M. de Sericourt and his 
fellows in arms — among whom were now such celebrated 
warriors as M. de Pontis, De la Petitiere, De la Riviere, De 
Bessi, and De Beaumont — reawakened ; and, recalling their 
never-forgotten science, they hurriedly made walls around 
the monastery, opened in them towers of defence, and armed 
themselves cap-a-pie to protect Port-Royal to the death. 
One of the old soldiers obtained permission to wear a helmet 
of the Guards of M. le Prince, thinking thus to impose on 
marauders, while, mounting sentry at the gate, Le Maitre 
himself stood ready to fire on Mazarinist or Frondist alike. 
In the intervals, the Penitents went back to their studies, 
their hoeing and threshing, their boot-making and their 
gardening. 

As for the nuns, the noise and disturbance of the Fronde 
served but to emphasize yet more strongly the quiet charity 
and goodness of both the Paris and the country monastery. 
In her charity, Mere Angelique had always pursued a regular 



i62 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

system. It was her custom to give many poor people in the 
neighbourhood work to do, and to feed them at the Abbey, 
when she herself would assist in the distribution, during 
which she had some simple book of spiritual import read 
aloud to her beneficiaries. In his Abrege, Racine testifies 
as follows to the charity of Port-Royal, saying : 

" It is not believable how many poor families of Paris and 
in the country subsisted on the charities made them by one 
or other of the monasteries." ^ 

During the first Fronde, these charities were redoubled ; 
and if during the Fronde the farm on the heights might have 
been a fortress, filled with soldier-workmen of the Lord, the 
monastery in the valley could have been likened to a Noah's 
ark, for every timid soul in all the country round seemed 
to fly to it for shelter. Nuns from other convents knocked 
at its gates to ask hospitality ; peasants deposited their little 
treasures within its walls for safe keeping, bringing even 
their daily bread to a place from whence they could be sure 
of extracting enough for their actual wants. The very courts 
of the Abbey were full of cattle, the church so piled with 
wheat, oats, peas, beans, cauldrons, and even the books 
of Ces Messieurs, that in order to get into the choir for 
the service, the nuns had to walk over the masses on the 
floor. Added to other features of this terrible period, the 
cold was intense, and, the supply of firewood becoming 
exhausted, the nuns were afraid to send into the forest 
to replenish it. 

As usual, Mere Angelique made the best of the situation, 
and writing to a friend remarked that without the cold there 
might have been the pest. And, she added, 

" With all these things God has so assisted us that in a sense 
we are in no way sad." ^ 

In the interval between the first and second Fronde, Port- 
Royal sustained several great losses, among others that of 
both Madame Le Maitre and De Sericourt. De Saci's new 
dignity as a priest of Jansenist austerity was severely tried 
by having to stand at the death-bed of these, his beloved 

1 pp. 36, 37. 2 Lettre d' Avril 1649. 



THE FRONDE 163 

mother and brother. To sustain his Stoicism, his mother 
exhorted him thus : 

" My son, help to make your mother die well, and to place 
her in Heaven, she who has placed you only in this miserable 
life." 1 

At about the same time, Port-Royal lost its faithful phy- 
sician. Doctor Pallu, his place being at once filled by a Penitent 
of quite a different calibre, who, as lugubrious as the " little 
Pallu " had been gay, found it difficult at first to win his way 
into the hearts of either Solitaires or peasants. ^ Yet Jean 
Hamon, not more than thirty-one years of age, was after- 
ward to be known as one of the " grand spirituels *' of the 
seventeenth century. Although the most singular, he was 
also one of the most picturesque and poetical of all the 
Messieurs. There is indeed no more original figure in the 
history of Port-Royal than the " Grand Epitaphist *' of 
Port-Royal. 

The quality of the Latin inscriptions composed by this 
mystic of gentle imaginative mind and warm heart was super- 
latively an original one ; they were full of the flavour of his 
own unique personality. But of all his efforts in this direction, 
the one he made for himself is most characteristic : 

" Here rests Sinner John. Do not judge me with too 
much rigour, which would do you no good ; do not judge me 
with too great indulgence, which would be harmful to me ; but 
fear for me, for both you and me it is salutary to fear ; and at 
least have pity for me ; pity always serves those who are its 
object. Pray to God that He pardon me, because His 
mercies are without number and the treasure of His goodness 
is infinite." ^ 

Fontaine says very beautifully of M. Hamon that his memory 
lives in all the beautiful, wise, just, and true eulogies he made 
of other people, and that these mental works of art are as 
flowers which crown him and consecrate his friends.* As 



1 " Mon fils, aidez votre mdre a bien mourir, et a la mettre dans le Ciel, 
elle qui ne vous a mis que dans cette miserable vie" (Fontaine, Mitnoires, 
i. p. 400). 

2 Ibid. ii. p. 42. 3 SuppUment au Nicrologe, p. 420, 
♦ M ^moires, ii. p. 565. 



l64 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

physician too he was unique. A profound theologian as 
well, his wit, science, and learning was turned to the service 
of a most practical religion ; ^ and on coming to Port-Royal, 
this finest of the students of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris 
began at once to exercise his gifts for the poor of the neigh- 
bourhood. 

When called into the nuns' quarters to see a sick person, 
he entered the sacred precincts with reverence and humility. 
Nevertheless, being a great talker, he himself told that Mere 
Angelique was often obliged to come and warn him that 
he had said enough, and that it was time for him to go. So 
austere was he in his penitence, that although in coming 
to Port- Royal he had given up everything he had to the 
poor, in secret he still gave even his own food to the destitute, 
nourishing himself on the bread of dogs made for him by 
a confidential servant of Les Granges called Jean Rose. This 
food, served on a board, he ate standing in a closed passage- 
way. 

In appearance the Doctor Solitaire was long and thin, 
his invariable dress of black so sombre, that on one occasion 
a woman, meeting him in the lonely country, took him for a 
spectre. But when visiting the poor he always carried a 
Bible, and it was his custom to say that God alone was the 
Doctor who could save. In later life, being unable to go 
great distances on foot, his long gaunt figure could be seen 
proceeding to the sick of the district seated on an ass, and 
even when riding about the country on this animal he had a 
book either in his hand or on a little desk fixed to his saddle. 
Being very fond of knitting, at times he also knitted as he 
sat upon his humble steed, praying the while. 

In the Second War of the Fronde, which was longer and 
more dangerous than the first, the nuns in the country were 
obliged to flee to the hospitality of the Paris institution. As 
the latter had offered refuge to the nuns of any Order what- 
soever, in less than a month it had succoured within its walls 
more than four hundred souls. The stranger nuns, received 
by the Port-Royalists like sisters, had an opportunity while 
living in the monastery of observing the mode of life of the 
despised Jansenists, and through them many prejudices 

1 In admiration, Fontaine exclaimed of Hamon : " In a word, he was 
our glory and our example" {Memoires, ii. p. 561). 



THE FRONDE ~ 165 

against Port- Royal were removed, some of the nuns even 
wishing to remain permanently in their refuge. 

" We have won twelve Benedictines by the war," wrote 
Mere Angelique, " all of whom have the great wish to serve 
God." 1 

During the absence of the country nuns in Paris, the 
Solitaires, aided by wealthy sympathizers, took the oppor- 
tunity of improving their quarters by making important 
additions to the cloisters and other parts — owing principally 
to the efforts of the Due de Luines, one of the numerous 
recruits from the outside world, who at the time of the Fronde 
flocked to Port-Royal to settle down under the shadow of 
sanctity. 2 Two large dormitories and twelve new cells were 
added. 

Charles Louis Albert, Due de Luines, a son of the Duchesse 
de Chevreuse by her first husband, the Connetable de Luines, 
from now on becomes a most important friend of Port-Royal. 
His wife, Louise Seguier, a god-daughter of the Queen of 
Poland, was naturally pious, and soon after her great marriage 
she had succeeded in inspiring a spirit of penitence in the 
heart of her husband. Filled with a desire to retire from 
society, these two young people began to build a chateau in 
the grounds of Port-Royal, only a stone' s-throw from the 
monastery proper. While it was in process of construction, 
returning to Paris, the Duchess endeavoured to live in the 
world without being of it, continually longing to be able 
to definitely throw off its yoke, yet pursued by strange appre- 
hensions of never accomplishing her desire. And in sooth, 
on the eve of the completion of the Chateau of Vaumurier, at 
twenty-seven years of age, she expired with the words of 
St. Augustine on her lips : 

"O to love eternally! O never to die! O to live for ever !" ^ 

Overw^helmed by the loss of his wife, for a moment the 
Duke thought of becoming a Father of the Oratory. Finally, 
deciding to retire as a Solitaire to Port-Royal des Champs, 
and going to Vaumurier, he threw himself with ardour into 
plans for the enlargement of the nuns' quarters. For many 

1 Lettre du Juin 1652, a M. Le Maitre. 

2 See M6re Angelique's letters of 1652 for full history. 

3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 313. 



i66 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

years'^ he was so actively engaged in all sorts of work 
connected with the monastery, that Mere Angelique 
remarked laughingly one day : 

" Heretofore we have had gentlemen for shoemakers, at 
present we have a Duke and Peer for foreman." ^ 

In his enthusiasm, the Duke put his son under the care of 
Lancelot ; his daughter. Mile, de Luines, in the charge of the 
good nuns. Later on, however, he returned to the Court, 
and scandalized his friends by marrying a very young girl, 
his near relative. This second wife dying also, he essayed 
matrimony yet a third time, himself living on to the age of 
over seventy. On leaving Vaumurier he made a present of 
the property to the Abbey, and it is interesting to hear the 
fate of the chateau. 

Hunting one day near Port-Royal, the Dauphin of France 
noticed that Vaumurier was unoccupied. Accordingly, on 
his return, he asked the King to give it to him, thinking to 
place in so lovely a spot a person whom he loved. The then 
Abbess of Port-Royal, Mere Angelique de St. Jean, being 
warned of this design, promptly had Vaumurier razed to the 
ground, and the King, on hearing of her prompt action, is said 
to have praised it. To-day a tavern marks the site of the 
lordly chateau. 

Among other recruits of the Fronde, who like the Due de 
Luines were so impressed by the teachings of Ces Messieurs 
and the saintliness of the nuns as to build houses of retreat 
at Port-Royal, were the Duke and Duchess of Liancourt. Jeanne 
de Schomberg, daughter of M. d'Andilly's former chief, the 
Surintendant des Finances, was responsible for the association 
of herself and her husband with the monastery. Marrying 
M. de Liancourt at the age of twenty, and sincerely in love with 
him, the Duchess had much to bear on account of his in- 
fidelities. But with pious patience she set herself to winning 
her husband's heart, and was rewarded, during a long illness, 
when she nursed him with devotion, by accomplishing her 
object. An illness of her own, which followed his, finished 
the Duke's conquest, and, his subjugation complete, the 
Duchess easily succeeded in inducing him to embrace a life of 
penitence, ruled over by the advice of the recluses of Port- 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 315. 



THE FRONDE 167 

Royal. For thirty years husband and wife led most pious 
and exemplary existences, Madame de Liancourt being uni- 
versally considered the model of a Christian wife. In her 
ideas of duty she was stern to the point of fanaticism, being 
continually on the watch lest she fail in some way. Un- 
fortunately, this anxiety would often attack her several 
times in one night, when, remembering something she had 
left undone, she would each time rise and make a note of the 
matter on her tablets. ^ In his later years, the Duke was also 
very peculiar, and at Port-Royal des Champs people were 
edified by his extreme politeness, which went to the point 
of saluting everybody he met. A little near-sighted, even 
the cowherd appeared a venerable figure to him.^ Perhaps, 
he said to himself, it may be one of Ces Messieurs — a very 
reasonable supposition. 

After an absence of ten months in Paris, the nuns under 
Mere Angelique were at last able to retiurn to the beloved 
Champs. On arrival, they found the Desert very much 
changed, not merely by new buildings, but by the various 
mansions which penitents and admirers had erected within 
the precincts. Added to these was an important increase 
in pupils and novices. All was now life, movement, spiritual 
hope, and aspiration. The troubles of the Fronde appeased, 
the nuns and their leader, in a happy reaction and with no 
premonition of future calamity to disturb their peace, resumed 
the daily routine of work, prayer, and charity. 

On their part, the Solitaires, subduing both the momentary 
warlike mood and the restlessness induced by a wave of 
discussion which had overtaken them while working at 
Vaumurier, mounted the hill, and once more took up their 
domicile at Les Granges, leaving the old Abbey below with 
only the battlemented towers of defence as tangible evidence 
of the recent presence either of the Fronde or of themselves. 

1 See Vies Inter ess antes et ^difiantes des Religieuses de Port-Royal, vol. i. 
pp. 411-445. 

2 Ibid. pp. 446-456. 



PART III 

THE SECOND PORT-ROYAL 

1653-1669 



169 



CHAPTER I 

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL, AND 
ITS EFFECT ON HER BROTHER BLAISE 

" Prenez part aux douleurs dont mon §,me est atteinte, 
Ecoutez mes soupirs et voyez ma langueur. 

Si vous me refusez le coeur, 
Au moins pretez Toreille aux accents de ma plainte ; 
Et puisque vos rigueurs me forcent de veiller, 
Cessez de sommeiller." 

Jacqueline Pascal 

LIKE the Arnaulds, the Pascal family came from Auvergne ; 
like the Arnaulds again, they too belonged to the 
upper gentry of France, most of them having held 
important offices under the Crown, and one ancestor ennobled 
by Louis xi. The Pascals in Auvergne were acquainted 
with the Arnaulds in Paris, and when, as a young man £tienne 
Pascal, son of Martin Pascal, Treasurer of France, came to 
Paris to study law, he carried with him a letter of introduction 
to M. Antoine Arnauld senior.^ 

His course of law^ finished, fitienne Pascal returned to 
Auvergne, and purchased an office in the Government, soon 
becoming Second President of the Court of Aids. Shortly 
afterwards, he married a certain Mile. Antoinette Begon, 
who was both pious and intellectual. Of six children born 
of this marriage, three alone survived : Gilberte, who at the 
age of twenty-one married M. Florin Perier, Counsellor of the 
Court of Aids at* Clermont ; Blaise ; and Jacqueline. 

Jacqueline was but two years of age when her mother died. 
Four years later, becoming concerned as to the education of 
his children, the father sold his office in Auvergne, and removed 
to Paris. 

' Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 455. 



172 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

■ "^ fitienne Pascal's second daughter seems to have been bom 
with talents of an extraordinary order. Strowski, a modern 
biographer of Pascal, goes so far as to say that she was the 
brilliant and admired star of the family. ^ In her early child- 
hood she seemed to have a great aversion for study, and 
Gilberte was in despair of ever making her learn her letters, 
until, happening to read aloud a verse of poetry, the music of 
the measure at once struck a mystic chord in the sensitive 
nature of the child : 

" Ah ! " she exclaimed, " if you want to make me read, do 
so in a book of verse, and I will say my lesson as much as you 
like." 2 

Before she was fourteen, the embryo poetess had composed 
a sonnet to Anne of Austria, who sent for her to come to 
St. Germain. On arrival in the great Palace of Kings, Jacque- 
line was conducted to an ante-chamber filled with Court ladies, 
also attending on the Queen's pleasure. These dames at once 
surrounded Mile. Pascal, of whose genius all had heard, and 
at their head, Anne of Austria's niece, the Grande Mademoiselle, 
herself a very young girl at the time, said to the budding 
poetess : 

" Since you make such good verses, make one for me." 

At this royal command, Jacqueline, very cold and dignified, 
retired into a corner of the room, from whence, returning in a 
moment or two, she handed to the Princesse d 'Orleans the 
following extemporaneous verse : 

" Muse, notre grande princesse 
Te commande aujourd'hui d'exercer ton adresse 
A loner sa beante ; mais il faut avouer 

Qu'on ne saurait la satisfaire. 
Et que le seul moyen qu'on a de la louer, 
C'est de dire en un mot qu'on ne le saurait faire." ^ 

^ Pascal et son Temps, vol. ii. p. 17. 

2 From Marguerite Perier's life of Jacqueline Pascal in Vies Intcressantes 
et Edifiantes des Religienses de Port-Royal, vol. ii. p. 339. 
^ Rough translation : 

Muse, our renowned Princess 
„i Commands thee to-day to exert thine address 

In praising her beauty ; but one must avow 

'Tis in vain we would bow to do her this duty ; 
For there is but one way in her praise aught to say, 
In a word, 'tis to vow that we know not how. 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 173 

In 1638, fitienne Pascal was among a parcel of malcontents 
who complained of Richelieu's retrenchment in revenues accru- 
ing from money invested in the Hotel de Ville, and when an 
order was sent out for the imprisonment of these men in the 
Bastille, the name of Pascal was on the list. Jacqueline's 
father escaped only by taking sudden flight, and was still in 
hiding the next year when Cardinal Richelieu, who had a 
passion for plays and acting, conceived the idea that he would 
like to see a comedy performed by children. As Jacqueline's 
powers in this direction were well known, her name was one 
of the first on the list of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Richelieu's 
niece. 

Quickly learning her role, when the eventful day came, 
Jacqueline acted with such grace and skill as to surprise and 
enchant her audience, Richelieu among the number. After- 
wards, through her tears of fright managing to recite the verse 
she had composed for the occasion, she poetically begged the 
deliverance of her father. Richelieu was so gracious, we are 
told, as not only to take the precocious child on his knee, 
but to grant her request. In response to her further prayer 
that her father might himself come and thank the Cardinal, 
he replied : 

" Let him come, and bring all his family." 

£tienne Pascal therefore returned in great haste from 
Auvergne, and soon appeared at Ruel, Richelieu's estate near 
Paris, with his three children. Looking at Jacqueline and 
her brother, the Cardinal, who had a rare talent for discovering 
genius, turned to their father and said : 

" Monsieur, I recommend these children to you ; some day 
I shall make something great out of them." ^ 

Shortly after this event, the father was made Intendant 
of Normandy, and the whole family removed to Rouen, where 
next we hear of Jacqueline's winning the prize at the famous 
Palinods, under the protection of no other than the poet 
Corneille. It is interesting to note that at this early period 
one of her poems was written against Love, " the Vanquisher 
of Feeble Souls." 2 

Nevertheless, the young girl preserved a very childish 

^ Recue.il de Plusieurs PUces, p. 241. 

2 See Victor Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 104, 



174 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

spirit, for at fifteen, her sister tells us, she was still in the habit 
of dressing and undressing her dolls. Young as she was, she 
had a vogue in society. People loved to see the delicate face 
and charming personality, and when she entered a drawing- 
room a murmur of pleasure would arise on all sides. Yet she 
herself was indifferent to this popularity, and quite unspoiled. 
Gaily and sweetly she went on her way, making verses, keeping 
house for her father (for by this time Gilberte had married and 
gone away from Rouen), adoring her brother, paying no atten- 
tion to the various suitors for her hand, and also giving no 
thought to entering the religious life, which at this period 
she rather despised as being incapable of satisfying an inquir- 
ing mind.i 

£tienne Pascal himself lived in the midst of continual 
scientific curiosity and speculation, being the friend of men 
like Pere Mersenne, Roberval, Carcavi, Le Pailleur — names with 
which to conjure up visions of all the inquiry and agnosticism 
which followed Montaigne. Blaise had always been delicate, 
and his father, influenced by the prejudices of his time, 
believed firmly that the child had been cursed by a sorceress 
in his cradle. Determined to have the evil spirit exorcized, 
M. Pascal therefore sought out the woman who was supposed 
to have put the spell on the infant, made her avow her crime, 
and transfer the charm to a black cat. The cat died, and 
Blaise's cure was completed by a cataplasm of nine leaves 
of three herbs brewed by a child before sunrise. ^ 

Some one has asserted that the key to the peculiar char- 
acter and individuality of Blaise Pascal may be found in the 
fact of his education. Brought up as he was between two 
sisters, he could not avoid taking on some characteristics of 
their sex, and to them he owed a nervousness commonly 
called feminine, as well as the rare grace and charm which 
endeared him to those who surrounded him.^ Madame 
Perier, Pascal's sister and biographer, herself educated by 
her father not only in history and philosophy, but also in 
mathematics, tells the story simply of how M. Pascal trained 
his son. Anticipating the method of the Petites ficoles, this 
wise father would not teach the boy Latin until he was twelve, 

1 V. Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, loth ed., 1894, P- 57- 

2 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal, in Louandre ed. Pensees, p. 25. 
^ Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, p. 3. 




BLAISE PASCAL 

FROM EDELINCK'S ENGRAVING OF THE PORTRAIT BY QUESNEL 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 175 

first wishing him to reahze what a language was : how it was 
formed, how its grammar had been built, etc. This method 
of education, as Sainte-Beuve remarks,^ was exactly the 
opposite of that used in the instruction of Montaigne, who 
learned Latin when still in his nurse's arms, thereby acquir- 
ing no foundation of consecutive thought. From his earliest 
years, on the contrary, Blaise Pascal was a thinker, eager to 
know the meaning of things, Truth being the unique object 
of his mind's desire. 

Up to the age of twelve, M. Pascal pere had steadily 
refused to teach his son mathematics, knowing this science 
to be " a thing which fills and satisfies the mind," ^ and wishing 
him to first master the languages. He therefore kept all 
books on the subject away from the boy, nor would he allow 
his friends to discuss it in Blaise's presence. Finally, one day, 
being pressed by the boy to tell him what the science was, 
Pascal answered that it was the means of making figures 
correctly, and of finding their true proportions to each other. 
At the same time, he forbade his son to think or speak of 
mathematics again. 

From this moment, in his hours of recreation, Blaise began 
to dream of the forbidden kingdom of lines and planes and solids. 
Imagine the surprise of the father when, on coming one day un- 
expectedly into the big play-room, he found Blaise on his knees, 
surrounded by charcoal and geometrical figures. On asking him 
what he was doing, Blaise replied that he was seeking such and 
such a thing, which M. Pascal recognized as the thirty-second 
proposition of the First Book of Euclid. Other questions 
and answers followed, until the whole sequence of ideas 
developed. In making his calculations, it was pathetic that, 
ignorant of the geometrical terms, the young mathematician 
had invented his own expressions, and designated a circle 
by the word round, a line by stroke. M. Pascal was so appalled 
by the greatness and power of this genius in his son, that 
without a word he hurried from the room and to his friend 
Le Pailleur, who, surprised to see M. Pascal in tears, 
anxiously asked the reason. 

" I do not weep from affliction," replied the father, "but 

^ Port-Royal, ii. p. 457. 

2 Marguerite Perier, MSmoite de la Vie de M. Pascal, ed. Pens^es 
(Louandre ed.), p. 77. 



176 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

from joy ! " Whereupon he told Le Pailleur the whole story. 
The latter, not less astonished than M. Pascal, advised his 
friend to no longer hold liis boy's genius captive, but to 
give it the wings of knowledge. Accordingly, M. Pascal 
went home and delivered over to Blaise the First Book of 
Euclid, which the boy at once read and understood without 
need of remark or explanation. 

At^the age of eighteen, ill-health returned, to leave its 
victim no more, for, attacked then by a nervous disorder 
due to overwork, it is said Blaise Pascal never spent one 
day without pain. When at twenty-four partial paralysis 
attacked him, he had already invented his calculating- 
machine, and published a sketch of his experiments on the 
vacuum. The next year, forbidden by his doctor to do any 
work himself, he made through his brother-in-law, M. Perier, 
the test of comparing mercurial barometers at the summit 
and the foot of Puy-le-D6me, which was later on verified by 
tests of his own made on the top of the Church of St. Jacques 
la Boucherie in Paris. 

In January 1646, M. Pascal pere was unfortunate enough 
to fall on the ice and dislocate his shoulder. Being confined 
to the house for several months in consequence, he asked 
some neighbours of his to come and stay with him. These 
two Norman gentlemen, MM. de la Boutelleries and 
Des Landes, were both friends of Port-Royal, and, during 
their stay of three months in the Pascal household, 
their patient, together with all his family, gradually became 
interested in the works of Jansenius, St. Cyxan, and Arnauld. 
Soon afterward, Blaise being very seriously indisposed, 
was ordered to give up work and go to Paris to consult some 
physicians. Detailed to accompany her brother, together 
Jacqueline and Blaise frequented the Church of Port-Royal 
de Paris. Here both were touched by the eloquent sermons of 
M. Singlin,^ and experienced the action of Divine Grace. On 
going back to Rouen and telling their father of Jacqueline's 
desire to enter the monastery of Port-Royal, M. Pascal senior 
was very angry, not only with his daughter but also with 
Blaise : 

" Never during my lifetime will I consent to your leaving 

^ Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 67,. Madame Perier chronicles that Blaise 
was first converted and that he converted his sister. 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 177 

me," he declared to Jacqueline. '' You may lead what life 
you please in my house, but you may not leave me ! " 1 

The dutiful daughter submitted to her father's wish, and 
for four years longer remained under the paternal roof, having 
a secret commerce with Mere Agnes and Singlin, but endeavour- 
ing wherever she was to isolate herself and lead a life of 
absolute monastic seclusion. 

When in 1651 fitienne Pascal died " in great piety and 
holiness," his death sounded, Jacqueline thought, her own 
liberty bell. She was free at last to follow her inclination 
and retire to Port-Royal. But alas ! touched momentarily 
by the eloquence of Singlin to a more personal enthusiasm, 
which might be called " conversion," her brother had unfor- 
tunately relapsed soon afterwards into worldliness of spirit 
and practice, and he now opposed where he had formerly 
encouraged his sister, refusing to turn over her fortune. 
Port-Royal was most indifferent in Jacqueline's case as to 
the usual dowry, and had magnificently offered to take its 
new penitent without a penny, but as this was galling to 
Jacqueline's pride, she persisted in trying to make Blaise 
surrender her patrimony. Finally, going to see her one day 
at Port-Royal, whither she had gone in the meantime, as 
her sister relates : 

" In a tranquillity and equality of soul inconceivable," 2 
Pascal, who really loved his sister tenderly, was so touched 
by the sadness she could not conceal, that he decided to 
arrange the matter as she desired. When he appeared at 
Port-Royal de Paris with the papers transferring Jacqueline's 
dower to Port-Royal, Mere Angelique at first refused to accept 
the money unless Jacqueline's brother offered it because he 
thought it was right, from a feeling of true piety, and not 
out of pity. At last, persuaded of his good faith, with reluct- 
ance she signed the docimients, saying as she did so : 

" You see. Sir, we have learned from the late M. de St. 
Cyran to receive nothing for the house of God but what comes 
from God." ^ 

" It was precisely at this moment," says Strowski, " the 
world was drawing him ; into it he went." 

^ Recueil de Plusieurs Piices, p. 250. 

^ MSmoires pour servir d, I'Histoire de Port-Royal, Utrecht, 1742, iii. pp. 
54-105. ^Ibid. 

12 



178 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

^ 'The only frivolous period of Blaise Pascal's existence, 
a short year and a half — six months of which was spent, accord- 
ing to Sainte-Beuve, at Paris, six months at Clermont-Ferrand, 
and again six months at Paris between 1652 and 1654 — is 
shrouded in mystery. Ill health seems to have been uniquely 
responsible for the change in the great philosopher from an 
absorbed student to the man of the world. The illness which 
had taken him to Paris in 1648 was of a very serious nature. 
Although remedies and care soon brought partial recovery, 
mental work was interdicted, and, as Marguerite Perier relates, 
his keen and lively mind could not remain inactive. Thus, 
Pascal turned to pleasure for distraction. Taking this at 
first moderately, the taste gamed upon him, until : 

" He threw himself into the world, without vice of any 
kind, but spending his time in inutility, pleasure, and amuse- 
ment." 

The philosopher's principal companion in this phase of 
his life was the Due de Roannes, Governor of Poitou, a 
young man of about Pascal's age who had already sounded 
the depths of dissipation, but who was attracted to Pascal 
by a great passion for mathematics. On their first meeting, 
the Duke had taken an instant fancy to Pascal, and had offered 
him an apartment in his hotel. It was not long, indeed, before 
this attachment grew until the Duke could not bear his new 
friend out of his sight, and placed in him not only a fixed 
belief as regarded scientific matters, but finally in religion. 
As a result of this friendship with a nobleman to whom all 
doors were open, Pascal was drawn into so-caUed ** society," 
and it is recorded that he loved card-playing, the comedy, 
and intercourse with the other sex, being devoted above 
all things to the gentle art of conversation. M. Cousin thus 
poetically describes Pascal's personal appearance at this 
time : 

" His portrait is there to tell us what his noble visage was ; 
his big eyes flashed flames, and in this time of great and romantic 
gallantry, . . . Pascal, young, handsome, full of languor and 
ardour, impetuous and thoughtful, proud and melancholy, 
must have been an original and interesting personage." 2 

^ Marguerite Perier, MSmoire de la Vie de M. Pascal, p. 78. 
* Victor Cousin, Etudes sur Pascal (sth edition, 1857), p. 482. 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 179 

Until in 1843 M. Victor Cousin discovered in the depth 
of the Bibliotheque Nationale a little manuscript called 
Discours sur les passions de V Amour, Pascal was supposed 
to have been practically free from any serious love affair 
whatever. His men friends were more important and 
necessary to him. Of these, none surpassed in attraction 
the fascinating Chevalier de Mere, on the one hand, while, on 
the other, none who equalled the subtle power of Mi ton, 
to whom Mere said : 

'* Vous savez dire les choses." ^ 

Miton loved the world and the card-table, these were his two 
passions. Otherwise we have but little knowledge of him, 
and it is also doubtful how much Pascal was influenced by 
this friend. Probably only admiring him, and enjoying 
his wit, to Pascal, the attraction of this man was the breadth 
and flexibility of his soul — his easy morality, which had for 
basis the habit of making life pleasant for others — the enhance- 
ment of social intercourse by geniality and courtesy. Miton 
had no other moral code. 

The Discours sur les passions de V amour," says M. Victor 
Giraud,^ may be attributed to the influence of Mere, and may 
indeed even be his work, and not Pascal's, for the original 
manuscript had no signature, and was found placed with a 
writing of the Chevalier de Mere's, as well as among some 
manuscripts of Nicole's and other Port-Royalists. M. Cousin 
at once recognized Pascal's style, and in the language thought 
he detected to his own satisfaction proof that the writer 
had experienced the grande passion. Other authors of note 
have contested not only this view, but the authorship of 
the little treatise on love ; while again, admitting the possi- 
bility of the latter, some deny that it proves any particular 
emotional experience. 

In her short sketch of her uncle, Marguerite Perier is the 
authority for the assertion that Pascal made the resolve at one 
time to follow the common habit of the world — " C'est a dire 
de prendre un charge et se marier." ^ in reality, Pascal is 
said to have had only two strong attachments in his life : 

^ Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, ii. p. 244. 

* Pascal a-t-il ete amoureux ? Revue des Deux Mondes, Nov. 1 907. -' 

^ MSmoire de la Vie de M. Pascal (Ed. Louandre des Pens^es), p. 79. 



i8o THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

his father and Jacqueline. He loved the latter, says^Madame 
Perier, " d'une tendresse toute particuliere." The supposition 
is that when Jacqueline refused to remain with him, and 
preferred to separate herself from all she loved, Pascal was 
tempted to find consolation in the devotion of a wife : 
hence his project of marriage. 

No one has ever believed this fascinating genius to have 
been dissipated in the ordinary sense of the word.^ Neither 
with him nor Le Maitre had there ever been any fundamental 
irregularity of morals, any sensual or sentimental passion. 
In the Discours he says : 

" One asks if it is necessary to love. This should not be 
asked — ^it should be felt. ... By talking of love, one falls in 
love. Nothing is easier. It is the passion most natural to 
man.'' 

To go back to the Discours, it is strange how soon Pascal 
discarded its morality, palpably that of the exercise of the 
passions as a perfectly legitimate means of calming man's 
natural restlessness, and discovered the deeper, grander, and 
more philosophical sedative given by the immortal things 
of the spirit. To judge of these two conflicting phases of his 
nature, the Discours de l' Amour must be compared with the 
Pensees — the former written between 1652 and 1654, the latter 
an unfinished set of fragments of a tremendous work on 
Christianity which, planned even before the writing of the 
Discours, was not set on paper until during the last four 
years of his life (1658- 1662), But, as another modern writer 
on Pascal remarks : 

" There are twenty Pascals, each one of whom would merit 
our study." 2 

It was in June 1653 that M^re Angelique signed the papers 
which endowed Port-Royal with the dowry of Jacqueline 
Pascal. In December of the same year the now famous 
mathematician suddenly felt : 

1 Madame Perier testifies that her brother had always been preserved by 
a particular protection of God from all the vices of youth {Vie de Pascal, 

p. 32). 

* Henri Bremond, L'InquUmde Religieuse, p. 8. 



I 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL i8i 

" A great disdain of the world, and an almost insupport- 
able disgust of the persons in it/* ^ 

During the period of spiritual unrest which followed, 
Pascal did not at once turn to religion, but devoted himself 
more than ever to his mathematical w^ork, which was full of 
discovery. Everything he saw or heard was at once turned 
over in his creative brain until practical service resulted. 
While in this state of moral uneasiness and mental activity, 
he also still pursued the habits of the man of fashion. On a 
certain fete day in November 1654, as he was driving over 
the Bridge at Neuilly in his carriage, something frightened 
the six horses drawing it, and, taking the bits in their teeth, 
they rushed toward an unprotected part of the structure. 
The foremost pair were precipitated into the water, and the 
rest of the equipage was about to follow, when the reins con- 
necting the two first horses broke, leaving the carriage and 
other four safe on the brink. ^ This shock remained with 
Pascal all his life. Afterw^ards, the Abbe Boileau relates, he 
always saw a yawning chasm at his side, and when sitting in 
his room this abyss was sometimes so realistic that he used 
to put a chair over it. 

The weariness of the world Blaise had been experiencing, 
and which throughout all the months his sister Jacqueline 
had also been trying to alleviate by her sympathy and 
prayers,^ culminated at last, on the 23rd November 1654, 
when his tortured soul found : 

" Certitude, Peace, and Joy." 

That night, kept awake by pain in all his being, both 
physical and spiritual, turning over the leaves of the Bible 
at random, he finally stopped at the 17th chapter of St. John : 

" O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee : 
but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast 
sent me.'* 

1 Letter of Jacqueline Pascal to Madame Perier (8th Dec. 1654), in which 
she says : " Encore qu'il ait depuis plus d'un an un grand mepris du monde, 
et un degout presque insupportable de toutes les personnes qui en sont " 
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 242). 

2 Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 258. 

8 Letter of Jacqueline Pascal to Madame Perier, 25th Jan. 1655 (Cousin, 
Jacqueline Pascal, p. 243). 



i82 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Suddenly, in reading these words, an illumination came to the 
yearning soul that it was not the God of the philosophers 
and learned men that he should seek, but the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob. Rising from his bed of pain, he wrote 
down the feelings which filled his newly-awakened spirit, and, 
to commemorate the hour of his illumination, wore what 
he had written as an amulet for ever afterward on his 
person. After his death, this note, with another piece 
describing the accident of the Bridge at Neuilly, was 
found sewn into the lining of his coat. It had been 
transferred from coat to coat throughout the last eight 
years of his life.^ 

Pascal's conversion brought in its train that of his two 
dearest friends, both of whom became from thenceforth 
important figures in the history of Port-Royal. Having 
followed him in his worldly experiences, the Duke now 
refused to be left outside the door which Pascal was about 
to close for ever. Thus he actually accompanied him into 
the monastery itself. When the Roannes family and domestics 
learned of this decision, they fell into such a rage that the 
concierge of the Duke's hotel, where Pascal happened to 
be staying at the moment, rushed up to the room of the man 
he considered his master's seducer, knife in hand, prepared to 
kill him on the spot. Fortunately, Pascal was not there at the 
moment. 2 

As with the Due de Roannes, Pascal's acquaintance with 
Domat, his compatriot, and of the same age, had begun 
through mathematics, the two scientists making together 
several experiments on the weight of air, etc. Like Pascal, 
Domat was a man of great literary as well as scientific accom- 
plishments, and his book on Civil Laws in their Natural Order , 
was so celebrated in its day, that Boileau called the author 
" The Restorer of Reason in Jurisprudence." ^ Domat 
always remained faithful to Port-Royal at a distance, dying 
as he had lived in Auvergne, but being consulted by his friends 
on every occasion. His great cry was : 

^ Marguerite Perier, Memoire sur la Vie de M. Pascal (V. Cousin, Etudes 
sur Pascal, p. 399). 

^ Supplement au Necrologe de Port-Royal, p. 461. 
^1 ^ Of his own book Domat said : "I am surprised that God should have 
made use of an insignificant man hke me to make so fine a work, when there 
are at Paris persons of such great merit " {ibid. p. 462). 



THE ENTHUSIASM OF JACQUELINE PASCAL 183 

" Shall I never have the consolation to see a Christian Pope 
in the Chair of St. Peter ? " 

Pascal's determination to become a religious recluse re- 
sulted from a sermon of M. Singlin's at Port-Royal de Paris. It 
discussed the careless way in which people enter into life's 
gravest contracts : their professions, vacations, marriages, 
etc. Singlin's solemn words of warning on these points 
seemed to work the vitalizing effect on the converted philoso- 
pher's mind. From that moment he resolved to retire definitely 
from the world. On the Due de Roannes' return to Paris, too, 
he found that his penitence was being somewhat interfered 
with, as Jacqueline remarked, " The Due de Roannes occupied 
him entirely " ; so, confiding his dissatisfaction to M. Singlin, 
the latter at once saw the necessity of withdrawing his convert 
from such a distracting influence to a place where he could 
have complete solitude. Accordingly Port-Royal was selected 
as his most fitting place of retreat, and the day following 
Twelfth Night, 1655, this new Pascal went with the Due de 
Luines down to Port-Royal des Champs. In so doing, he 
himself hardly knew what was to be his fate : whether he 
was to stay there definitely, leading like Le Maitre the life 
of a devotee to penitence, or whether his spiritual directors 
would find active work for him in the field he had chosen. 
For the moment he resigned his will to God, and placed his 
soul in the keeping of Singlin. Neither he nor any of his 
companions dreamed of the task awaiting the converted 
mathematician.^ 



^ " He wrote me from there, "writes Jacqueline in the letter above quoted, 
"with an extreme joy to see himself lodged and treated like a prince — but a 
prince in the judgment of St. Bernard — in a solitary place where one made 
profession to practise poverty in everything as far as discretion permitted/' 
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 248). 



CHAPTER II 

THE LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN— THE EFFECT 
OF THE CONDEMNATION OF THE FIVE PRO- 
POSITIONS SAID TO BE CONTAINED IN THE 
AUGUSTINUS 

" La Justice et la Verite sont deux pointes si subtiles que nos instruments 
sont trop emousses pour y toucher exactement. S'ils y arrivent, ils 
s'ecachent la pointe et appuient tout autour plus sur le faux que sur 
le vrai." Pascal 

THE motto for the " Second Port-Royal," which according 
to Sainte-Beuve dates from the year 1653, was given 
by Anne of Austria. Turning one day to the Princesse 
de Guemene, who stood in the usual circle of courtiers about 
her, the Queen Mother said petulantly : 

" Your doctors talk too much." The doctor at whom this 
criticism was especially directed was Antoine Arnauld, vowed 
by his doctoral oath to the Sorbonne to defend the Truth 
*'to the shedding of his blood." 

The " Champion of Jansenism " was present everjAvhere, 
his spirit rushing underneath the sea of politics, of literary 
activity, and of religious controversy, mastering him and his 
friends, imposing its strength and dominance on his enemies, 
while spurring them on to greater and greater opposition. 
From this time, too, Arnauld ranged himself definitely, albeit 
insensibly, against the spirit of both Jansenius and St. Cyran.^ 

The other principal Defenders of the Faith at this time 
were not, as St. Cyran had asserted on his death-bed : 

" Twelve better than himself," 

^ Nicole was at this period not yet identified with either Arnauld nor Port- 
Royal. He had been for some time, however, associated with the Petites 
6coles, and under the direction of Singlin, but his real connection dates from 
1654. 

184 



LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 185 

but only about half-a-dozen leaders. These as enumerated 
by Sainte-Beuve were : ^ 

M. de Saci, whose unique quality was direction of souls, 
and who was not great in a crisis. 

M. Singlin, of the same type : gentle and unquarrelsome. 

M. de Barcos, absent in his Abbey of St. Cyran, but who in 
any case would not have made a good soldier. 

M. Le Maitre, essentially a penitent, too absorbed in 
fighting his own rebellious nature to give aid to outside 
struggles. 

M. d'Andilly : sad to 'relate, Sainte-Beuve is forced to 
designate Anne of Austria's grower of monster fruits as a 
" decoration of the Desert, rather than a column.'* 

Thus the Grand Arnauld was the one real fighter, and on him 
was now to fall the onus of battle. 

In the year of Blaise Pascal's awakening to the powerless- 
ness of the things of the world to satisfy the cravings of the 
soul, the struggle of the Fronde was just over, and Port-Royal 
had settled down to its everyday life again. The Paris nuns 
recommenced their customary good work among the poor, the 
instruction to postulantes, novices, and pupils ; while back at 
Port-Royal des Champs, Mere Angelique and her subordinates 
were happy in their enlarged quarters and seeming inde- 
pendence. The Solitaires, too, were contented in their own 
way, being established at Les Granges, and leading lives of 
usefulness, study, and goodness. 

But during their fancied security, strife and trouble 
were in the air, for calumny had been at work 
undermining the peace which the recluses and nuns valued 
so much. Reports as to the dangerous nature of their 
organization, and the impossibility of allowing such a menace 
against the State to remain undisturbed, were being circulated, 
and at last the Port Royalists became uneasy. Mere Angelique 
wrote thus to her confidante, the Queen of Poland : 

" On fait des medisances horribles a la Reine, qui croit 
tout.*' 

And indeed it was said at the Court that Port-Royal was a 

^ Port-Royal, iii. p. 23. 



i86 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

town filled with many inhabitants ; ^ that discussion of dogma, 
dangerous assemblies, and continual lectures on theology were 
going on there. Even the peasants round about believed 
some of these stories, for one day a raw countryman appeared 
at Les Granges and demanded to speak to one of the forty 
priests living there. Hearing these rumours, Antoine Le 
Maitre, who had previously written a Justification of St. Cyran 
against M. Zamet, now published a Memoir, ^ designed to dis- 
credit the false reports as to their numbers and occupations, 
describing the mode of life and organization of the Solitaires. 

The formation of the Society of Port-Royal was, he demon- 
strated, in truth the simplest and most natural one in the 
world. There had never been the least attempt to attract 
people, nor any effort to form an establishment. The organiza- 
tion had been a gradual evolution founded on the example of 
the first recluse, and followed by first one friend or relative, then 
by another. Every Solitaire on joining the community of 
Port-Royal de Champs had at once taken his own particular 
place in the domestic economy, and for five years before the 
advent of Antoine Arnauld and De Saci, they had not had 
a single priest or theologian among them. In the Abbey 
itself at the time of Le Maitre's writing were only three or 
four of the recluses, lodged there to fulfil special duties in the 
household of the nuns. 

The rest of the Solitaires, to the number of ten or twelve — 
not counting the children and their masters — dwelt in the 
farm above the hill in two little houses, removed at quite a 
distance from each other. These were built originally for the 
farmers. In addition, there was a hut covered with thatch ; 
one separate chamber, and a new and much larger apartment, 
the principal part of which was occupied by the eight pupils, 
its first occupants. In all these quarters there were only 
ordinary bedrooms, like those of any other house, and with no 
resemblance to monkish cells. The residents of Les Granges 
wore no habit,made neither profession nor vows, were hampered 
by no particular discipline, nor pledged to any stability of 
residence. Moreover, there was no form whatever of a com- 
munity, no church or chapel at the farm, the Solitaires being 

^ "There were there," they said, " forty students and forty fine pens, all 
pointed by the hand of one master" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 248). 
2 Recueil des PUces pour servir a I'Histoirc de PoH-Royal, pp. 208-228. 



LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 187 

obliged, like the villagers, to descend to hear Mass in the Church 
of the Monastery below. In fact, they were held by no rule 
but that of the Bible, no tic but that of Catholic Charity. 

As for dogmatizing, holding lectures, etc., but two of their 
number were capable of such a thing, Antoine Arnauld and 
M. de Saci, but these two penitents followed strictly St. 
Augustine's principles, which were : 

" To speak more to God for men, than of God before men. 
To be ardent in prayer rather than in dispute, and to have 
the heart full of Grace rather than the mind full of questions 
concerning Grace." 

But no Justification, no story of pure lives and high pur- 
poses, could now avail to avert the hostility of the Jesuits, the 
smouldering flame of whose ever-present enmity had probably 
been fanned by the success of the Petites £coles. They 
resolved to effect the entire extermination of those who had 
opposed their own special ideas of Christian life and doctrine. 
Disappointed in the result of their machinations against the 
Book of the Frequent Communion, these enemies now focused 
their attention on the Augustinus. 

Although in his preface Jansenius had not only hidden 
himself behind the figure of St. Augustine, but had submitted 
his book to Rome in the most humble manner, when in 1640, 
directly after the death of its author and in anticipation of 
opposition on the part of the Jesuits, the Augustinus was 
hurriedly published from the Louvain Press, denunciations 
against it began in Louvain, and soon reached the world 
outside Belgium as well. Jansenius was called a Second 
Calvin, and on the one side heaped with censure and scorn, 
on the other he was hailed as a prophet and overwhelmed with 
hyperboles of adoration and praise. Yet, strange to say, in 
1641 the Augustinus was printed at Paris, and furnished with 
the approbation of Five Doctors of the Sorbonne. Here, too, 
it was received with extraordinary interest, not only among 
non-theologians, but especially the Gallican faction, the 
natural enemies of the Jesuits. 

In 1643 the Paris edition was followed by one at Rouen. 
Then Paris awakened to the fight in three sermons preached 
by M, Habert of Notre-Dame, These had an immense renown 



i88 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

— offset, however, by Arnauld's defence, undertaken at St. 
Cyran's suggestion and written in three Apologies, entitled : 

" Apologies pour Jansenius, Eveque d'Ypres ; et pour la 
doctrine de Saint Augustin expliquee dans son livre intitule 
Augustinus contre trois sermons de M. Habert, theologal.** 

These latter writings had an enormous success in their turn, but 
their explanations of Grace alarmed some of the Doctors of the 
Sorbonne, who thereupon met together to consult as to what 
was to be done. One of their number — a certain M. Cornet ^ 
— conceived the idea of the proper procedure to adopt, which 
materialized in the drawing up of Five Propositions on Grace — 
a never-failing source of controversy, and one which lent itself 
to every sort of subtle distinction. These propositions — 
which were not openly declared to be extracted from the 
Augustinus — were " embarrassed," says Racine, ^ by very 
equivocal notes, which although to the very last degree heret- 
ical, were so cleverly expressed as to seem to embody the exact 
ideas on Grace which the Defenders of St. Augustine had 
stated. Taking his composition to the Sorbonne for examina- 
tion and discussion, M. Cornet found the Doctors divided. 
Those who adhered to St. Augustine declined to examine 
vague and anonymous propositions of the kind, and even 
asserted these in question to be fabricated expressly to make 
condemnation fall upon efficacious Grace. Sixty of the Doctors 
thus opposing M. Cornet's paper bringing the matter before 
Parlement, that body receiving their appeal, imposed silence 
upon both parties. 3 

The next step of the enemies of the Augustinus was to 
send in secret a long letter composed by M. Habert and signed 
by a great many prelates both of Paris and the provinces — 
some of whom were quite ignorant of what they had signed — 
to Pope Innocent x, begging him to pronounce his judgment 
on the Five Propositions. On learning of this move, the 
Defenders of St. Augustine sent to Rome four clever theologians 
— Noel de La Lane, Jacques Brousse, Louis de St. Amour, and 
Louis Angran — ^with a letter to the Pope, begging him to 
carefully weigh accusation and defence. 

^^See Ellies Du Pin, Histoire EccUsiastique du Dix SeptUme SUcle, vol. ii. 

p. 51. 

2 Racine, Abr^gS <le V Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 57. ^ Ibid. p. 54. 



LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 189 

To make a very long matter short, during the two years 
the Jansenist Doctors remained in the Italian capital, they 
hardly obtained a hearing. Unable to make oral defence, 
they drew up one in writing called " L'Ecrit a Trois Colonnes," 
in which they denied that the disputed propositions were con- 
tained in the Augustmus. But alas ! this writing, instead of 
elucidating for the outside world the subtilizations of the 
quarrel, only deepened the feeling of mystification in the 
minds of those desirous of understanding. 

Finally, on 31st May 1653, the Pope condemned the Five 
Propositions without distinction, saying publicly to the 
Deputies that the Condemnation had no regard either to 
efficacious grace in itself, or of the doctrine of St. Augustine, 
which would always be the doctrine of the Church.'^ 

Knowing Archbishop Retz to be in disgrace, a Jesuit 
Bishop of Toulouse called De Marca, who had designs on the 
Archbishopric of Paris, now offered his services to the Assembly 
of the Clergy being held at Paris. This was a move most 
fatal to the Jansenists, for with Pere Annat, M. de Marca at 
once began to work them the direst mischief. 

In the meantime, while Arnauld and his fellow-August- 
inians ostensibly submitted to the condemnation in the sense 
mentioned by the Pope, reiterating their statement that they 
did not believe the disputed propositions to be contained 
in the Augustinus at all, they offered to show that the book 
embodied quite the contrary assertions. Although this sub- 
mission satisfied most of the adversaries, it did not content 
those determined on the destruction of Arnauld and his friends, 
and they at once published a declaration that the submission 
was a forced one, and that the authors of it were still heretics 
at heart. 2 With malignant, malicious humour, they then 
fabricated a sort of illustrated calendar triumphantly celebrat- 
ing Innocent x's condemnation of the Five Propositions, in 
the form of an Almanac called : 

" La Deroute et a Confusion des Jansenistes.'* 

As frontispiece, this bombastic creation had an allegorical 
print representing the Pope seated under the Dove of the 
Holy Ghost, between the figures of Religion holding the 
Cross, and the power of the Church, depicted with a casque 

1 Racine, AhfSgS, p. 57. 2 m^. p. 58. 



190 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

and delivering sentence against the Jansenists. Jansenius, 
dressed in his Bishop's robes, looked very frightened, and with 
devil's wings on his shoulders was fleeing, his book in hand, 
toward Calvin, who in his corner was receiving wdth open arms 
an old lady wearing spectacles and marked " The Jansenists." 
The verse placed under the figure of the old lady read as 
follows : 

" Ah ! que deviendrons-nous, malheureux Jansenistes ! 
II faut a nos erreurs renoncer a la fin. 
Ou nous joindre au party des Docteurs Calvinistes, 
Car le nostre aussi bien tient beaucoup de Calvin." ^ 

Sixteen thousand copies of this Almanac were spread abroad. 
All Port-Royal was disturbed over this attack, and strange 
to say the quiet De Saci was so infuriated that he stooped to 
write a reply, which he called 

" Enluminures de I'Almanach des Jesuites." 

His object in doing this was, as he confessed to a friend, to 
defend St. Augustine and his disciples, outrageously treated by 
the Jesuits in their Almanac. His reply, couched in verse, 
touched every point of the insults against his friends, and 
ended with these words of defiance : 

" Mais que vostre verve feconde 
D'Almanachs remplisse le monde : 
Dechirez, mordez, menacez : 
Et conte sur conte entassez : 
L'Augustinenne doctrine 
Vivra malgre vostre Moline ; 
Et tant que Rome fleurira 
Sur sa pierre s'afiermira' 
L'eglise n'est point variable. 
Ce qu'elle a dit cent fois est stable : 
On ne la pousse point a bout : 
Le Ciel est maistre, et Dieu sur tout." ^ 

^ Rough translation — 

Ah, whatever shall become of us, unhappy Jansenists ! 

Must we then renounce our errors as a sin ? 
Or shall we join the party of the Doctor Calvinists, 
Ah, yes, 'tis true that much we owe Calvin. 
2 Rough translation — 

But let your fecund mirth 
With Almanacs fill the earth : 
Sunder, tear, revile, 
Heap tale on tale the while. 



LETTER OF THE LAW AGAIN 191 

These " cold pleasantries " of M. de Saci, as in a moment of 
anger Racine called them, were a strange digression indeed 
of one usually so circumspect in the matter of Christian 
morality. Arnauld tried to excuse the action of his nephew by 
bringing forward many quotations from the Fathers to estab- 
lish the fact that the Early patriarchs of the Church had often 
made war in a spirit of peace. 

But naught could extinguish the malice of the enemies 
of the friends of Jansenius. By the efforts of these theo- 
logians, the words efficacious grace and predestination became 
phrases so tabooed as to convict any speaker or writer who 
used them in book or sermon at once of heresy. And every 
day the enemies of Port-Royal brought forvvard new accusa- 
tions against them. Fortunately, as long as Cardinal Retz 
remained titular Archbishop of Paris, stronger measures lacked 
the necessary authoritative support to become actually 
destructive. 

When Coadjutor of Paris under his uncle M. de Gondi, 
Retz had been friendly to the nuns of Port-Royal, but 
it was not until after his imprisonment during the Fronde 
that he entered into any kind of partisanship, and then his 
attitude was explained by the fact that during his time of 
need the Messieurs of Port-Royal had had no hesitancy in 
championing the Prelate who had previously been friendly to 
them. When M. de Gondi died, and the Archbishopric de- 
volved on the absent hero of the Fronde, the Port-Royalists 
again defended Retz against those who tried to divert from him 
his hereditary office. Thus, although there was no distinct 
proof that the rebel Archbishop ever actually belonged to the 
Jansenists, it is certain that they kept in touch with him during 
his wanderings, and considered him their ally. Like Madame 
de Sevigne, the nuns always spoke of Cardinal Retz as *' our 
Archbishop." 

Pending Retz's dismissal from the Archbishopric, and 

The doctrine of Augustine 

Shall Uve despite MoUne, 

As long as Rome shall prosper, 

And on its stones grow stronger. 

The church is not inconstant, 

Her phghted word stands steadfast, 

One ne'er can force her to a fall. 

Heaven is above and God o'er all. 



192 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

finding that the mere condemnation of the Five Propositions, 
which by this time they had openly designated as contained 
in the Augustinus, was ineffective, Pere Annat and De Marca 
drew up a Formulary to the Condemnation. 
This document read as follows : 

" I submit myself sincerely to the Constitution of our 
Holy Father Pope Innocent x ... and I condemn from my 
heart and by my mouth the doctrine of the Five Propositions 
of Cornelius Jansenius contained in his Book entitled the 
Augustinus, which the Pope and Bishops have condemned ; 
said doctrine is not at all that of St. Augustine, whom Jansenius 
has badly explained against the real meaning of this holy 
doctor." 

The two prelates then induced Innocent x to authorize 
their addition to his Bull, but soon afterward the old, suave, 
but undogmatic Pope died (the next year, in fact, 1656), and 
the new Pope Alexander vii at once confirming the Formulary 
in his turn, lo ! the battle had begun. 

And now the astute Jesuits hoped to catch the Jansenists 
in a trap from which there was no escape, for to sign this 
document in the manner exacted, meant to both nuns and 
solitaires of Port-Royal giving the lie to their entire system 
of belief. How could they do it, and retain respect for 
themselves as " Friends of the Truth " ? 

Fortunately at this moment the enforcement of the signing 
of the Formulary as planned by the authorities was arrested 
by two remarkable events in the history of Port-Royal, both 
of which were connected with the Pascal family, the one a 
miracle of the human mind, the other a miraculous sign from 
Heaven ! 



CHAPTER III 
THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 

" Si cet ouvrage vous plait ct vous semble fort, sachez qu'il est fait par un 
homme qui s'est mis a genoux avant et apres." 

Strowski, after Pascal 

THE year 1656, no less momentous in its way than 1636, 
when Mere Angehque submitted to the spiritual 
guidance of St. Cyran, marked one of the milestones 
in the history of Port-Royal. In it occurred both the events 
which retarded the plans of the enemies of the Jansenists 
— the writing of the Provincial Letters, and the Miracle of 
the Sacred Thorn. 

The so-called " Provincial Letters " were occasioned 
indirectly by an experience w^hich happened to one of the 
influential friends of Port-Royal, the Due de Liancourt. 
This gentleman's friendship for the Port-Royalists was well 
known, and had given much umbrage in his Parish Church 
of St. Sulpice. Finally, having made there one day, as was 
his custom, a long and detailed confession to M. Picote the 
cure, the latter refused the noble penitent absolution, and 
even threatened to repudiate him at the Communion Table, 
saying : 

" I cannot grant you absolution. Monsieur, You neither 
speak to me of the important matter that in your house you 
have a Jansenist, a heretic ; nor of a granddaughter you are 
having educated at Port -Royal, nor of the intercourse you are 
carrying on with Ces Messieurs." ^ 

Then, as no consideration could induce the cure to grant 
absolution except on complete repudiation of Port-Royal, 
the Duke quietly left the Church, averring that he was pre- 

1 Racine, Abr^ge, p. 74. 
13 



194 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

pared neither to deny his faith nor his friends. Apropos of 
this incident, M. de la Rochefoucauld, nephew of the Duke, 
remarked humorously : 

** He spends all his fortune in doctors, and he is always ill ; 
in the counsel of business men, and he has always law-suits 
in hand which he loses ; in good works, and he is refused 
absolution in his parish." ^ 

When the Liancourt affair was reported at Port-Royal, 
there ensued a tremendous excitement which culminated in 
the defence of the Duke being taken up by the great contro- 
versialist, Antoine Arnauld. In a letter addressed to " A 
Person of Condition," after stating his desire to flee all con- 
testations and disputes, Arnauld proceeded to demonstrate 
M. Picote's act to be contrary to tradition and to Christian 
charity. Shortly after this first and very short letter of 
Arnauld' s, and which provoked ten others in reply from 
Pere Annat, etc., a second letter addressed to a *' Due et 
Pair de France " (the Due de Luines) — a veritable volume 
consisting of two hundred quarto pages — ^was brought by 
the Jansenist doctor's enemies before the Sorbonne for its 
censure. 

Revivified by Richelieu about twenty years before this 
period, the Sorbonne had by this time become the standard 
of authority on all religious matters — it constituted almost a 
permanent Council or Assembly of Prelates, with the right 
to sit upon and condemn or approve anything which concerned 
religion or the Church. Its decisions on matters of theology 
were irrefutable ; its censure pronounced against suspected 
books, or those imputed to be bad, allowed of no appeal ; 
and so great was its renown, that not only the Clergy and 
whole Catholic world deferred to it, but at times even the 
Cura Romana made it its arbitrator in difficult questions. 
In the building of the Sorbonne were lodged thirty-seven 
doctors called " Of the House and Society of the Sorbonne," 
but all Doctors of the Faculty of Paris were Doctors of the 
Sorbonne. This worthy body was now to distinguish and 
extinguish itself in the famous quarrel of the Jansenists just 
beginning — in fact, the Jansenist controversy was the last in 
which the Sorbonne ever took so active a part. 
1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 46. 



THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 195 

In Arnauld's second letter, the Sorbonne at once discovered 
two points of attack : 

First, the author's justification of the Book of Jansenius, 
putting in doubt that the propositions were contained therein. 

Second, his reproduction of the first of the condemned 
propositions by his assertion that the Bible and the Fathers 
show us in the person of St. Peter a Just Man to whom the 
Grace necessary for action had lacked. 

The first point was, they said, a question oi/ait, or dealing with 
persons and facts ; the second, one of droit, or points of faith 
and doctrine. Nicole asserted that it was Le Moine, a Doctor 
of the Household of the Sorbonne, who, with several other 
doctors like himself, had caused this commotion ; that his 
action was occasioned by revenge for Arnauld's having 
written his famous Apologies pour les Saints Peres against 
the book Le Moine had published on the subject of a new 
system of grace. ^ 

During the six weeks that these two letters were discussed 
in the Sorbonne, Amauld, in retreat at Port-Royal des Champs, 
was working at a refutation of the charge. As the accredited 
chief of a powerful party, it was clear that it was he who 
should compose a reply couched in such terms as to reach 
not only theological circles, but the general public. Alas ! 
if one may believe Racine's testimony, Antoine Amauld 
was far from being a diplomatist : 

" Every one knows," says the Abrege,^ " that he was an 
admirable genius for Letters, and that there was no limit to the 
extent of his knowledge ; all the world does not know, how- 
ever, — which nevertheless is very true, — that this marvellous 
man was also the simplest of mortals, quite incapable of 
finesse and dissimulation : in a word, the least adapted 
to form and conduct a party." 

Another drawback in Arnauld was the fact that although, 
when he spoke, fire, colour, life, were in his words, when he 
wrote, fire, colour, and life had disappeared in a mass of other 
mechanical qualities very admirable in their way : lucidity, 
firmness, order, method. ^ Added to these things, at the 
moment Arnauld was tired. For over ten years he had been 

^ Notes on First Provincial, p. 93. 

^ P. 93. 

3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 175. 



196 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

writing continually, and his hand was heavy with fatigue. 
Hence, in spite of good will, the style of his argument 
showed this mental weariness. 

There was ominous silence when the Messieurs heard 
what Arnauld had composed. Understanding their taciturnity, 
the Chief said sadly : 

" I see well that you do not find this writing good for 
the purpose, and I believe you are right." 

Then, turning to Pascal, he continued : 

" But you who are young, skilful, and a man of letters, 
you should do something." 

Pascal replied that all he could promise would be to draw up 
the sketch of a project for others to put into the proper form. 

Both by training and experience Pascal was admirably 
fitted to sustain a close contest of a controversial nature — to 
do so, in fact, was his trade as a mathematician. ^ In him, too, 
from conversion, the old spirit of St. Cyran seemed to be re- 
incarnated. And, as religion was thus stern and unbending, 
the ideas of the Casuists inspired in him a feeling of horror 
and antipathy. When, therefore, he set himself to the task 
of composing something for the world to see, his purpose 
was primarily to silence Arnauld's accusers ; secondly, to bring 
to confusion that body of reasoners who from the time Reform 
had first lifted up its head in France, had endeavoured by 
their system of relaxed morality to bring back the erring 
sheep into the fold of the Catholic Church. 

The great contemporary expositor of Casuistry 2 was a 
Spanish Jesuit called Escobar. In his famous Theologie 
Morale, by many citations from the learned fathers of the 
Church, this writer sustained his doctrine that the ways of 
virtue are wide. 

1 His sister said of him : "He had a natural eloquence which gave him 
a marvellous facihty to say what he wished to say. To this power he added 
rules as yet unknown to others, and which he used so advantageously as to 
be master of style " {Mme. Perier, Vie de Pascal, p. 44). 

' The real definition of Casuistry is : the science of duty. But, like many 
other things, the meaning of the word became perverted by the exaggeration 
of the science itself. The science of duty was refined upon and refined upon 
until discredit was brought upon it for its over-minuteness, which perverted 
it into an "immoral tampering with the principles of right and wrong" 
(Blunt's Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 746). 



THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 197 

"Ah ! " he exclaimed, " how wrong are they who complain 
that in matters of conduct the doctors produce for them so 
many diverse decisions ! They should rather rejoice, finding 
therein new motives for consolation and hope. For diversity 
of opinions in morality render the yoke of the Lord easier 
and sweeter ! " ^ 

To confute these men, one needed not only common sense 
and religion, but theology as well, and Pascal's weak point 
was his lack of theological knowledge, his education having 
been that of a scientist, and not a theologian. Still, to one 
of his fertile mind, this difficulty was easily surmounted, for 
there were Arnauld's books, notably the two called UApologie 
pour les Saints Peres and LApologie pour Jansenius, at 
hand. Pascal did not scruple to avail himself of these, a 
fact which caused Nicole afterward to speak slightingly of him 
as a " Collector of Shells." 2 

Armed with Arnauld's two Apologies as his theological basis, 
and inspired in his method of reasoning by the training of his 
friend De Mere in Stoicism and worldliness,^ Pascal essayed his 
tremendous task. His composition was in the form of a letter, 
which his printers afterward entitled : 

" Letter from a Provincial to one of his Friends." 

Later on, the whole series of the ''Petites Lettres," as they 
were also called, came to be spoken of as ^' The Provincials." 
Nicole, who under the name of Wendrock published a Latin 
edition of the Provinciales in 1657, declares in his preface 
Pascal's object in writing the first letters was simply to 
show that in the disputes in the Sorbonne there was nothing 
either serious or important, merely a question of words, and 
pure chicane, revolving on ambiguities that they did not wish 
to explain. For example, when challenged as to the meaning 
of the qualifying adjective prochain used in connection with 
pouvoir, Pascal found that each ecclesiastic he interviewed 
put a different construction on it, even while declaring it to 
embrace the distinct divergence between his party and that 
of the Jansenists. 

^ Priamhule de la Thhlogie Morale, Escobar. 

^ Abbe de St. Pierre, Ouvrages de Morale et de Polemique, vol. xii. p. 86. 

^ Strowski {Pascal et son Temps, iii. p. 187) is the authority for the state- 
ment that the Chevalier de Mere cured Pascal's style of its geometrical stiffness, 
and that he taught him the ease, charm, and worldliness of the Provincials. 



igS THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

In the First Letter, Pascal took up the question of fait 
and droit, and tried, by a mixture of irony, vivacity, and 
subtlety, to show that there was nothing heretical in Arnauld's 
letter, and that those who brought forward theological 
quibbles were stupid and ridiculous. The letter began as 
follows : 

*' Monsieur, — We have been much abused. I did not 
undeceive myself until yesterday. Up to then I thought 
that the disputes of the Sorbonne were very important, and 
of an extreme consequence for religion. You will be very 
much surprised, therefore, when you learn in what so great 
an uproar terminates." 

When, on the completion of the First Letter, Pascal read 
it to the assembled Messieurs, there was but one voice among 
them : 

"Ah, that is excellent : that will be appreciated : it must 
be printed ! " ^ 

On its appearance, it more than realized the expectations 
of Pascal's auditors. Among other dramatic effects, it so 
shocked Chancellor Seguier that he nearly had a stroke, and 
had to be bled seven times. Singlin, it seems, was frightened 
by its tone, which he doubted to be foreign to the spirit of St. 
Cyran. Ten days after the appearance of the First Letter, 
Savreux, the ordinary bookseller and printer for Port-Royal, 
was arrested, and seals were put upon the presses in the work- 
shops of Petit and Desprez, two other printers known to do 
work for Ces Messieurs. The amusing part of it was that the 
Second Provincial was already set up at Petit' s, and that the 
printer's wife, cleverly managing to conceal the type in her 
apron, passed through the guards in her husband's workshop, 
and safely conveyed it to a neighbour, where that night three 
hundred, the next day, twelve hundred, copies were printed off. 
The following morning, an apprentice of Petit's took President 
Bellievre the Second Letter fresh from the press, whereupon, 
believing that with the seals upon his presses Petit could have 
had nothing to do with the printing, the President removed 
his embargo. The printing of the Letters, therefore, was 
an easy matter, and the Third and Fourth of the Petites Lettres 
quickly appeared. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 44. 



THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 199 

When writing the Third Provincial, Pascal, with a premoni- 
tion of what was to very shortly happen to Arnauld, wrote as 
foUows : 

" I have understood from it (i.e. the controversy) that 
there is here a new kind of heresy. It is not the sentiments 
of M. Arnauld which are heretical ; it is only his person. 
It is a personal heresy. He is not heretical for what he has 
said or written, but only because he is M. Arnauld. This is 
all that one can find amiss with him." 

Not at first intending to indite more than one or two letters, 
Pascal was drawn on and on by the interest of the discussion 
until there were eighteen. Only five of these deal with 
Arnauld's particular controversy discussed in the Sorbonne : 
the first three, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth. The 
others attack the morality of the Jesuits, and instead of being 
on the defensive, give battle to the enemy in his own camp. 

Pascal's style is said to have consisted in a keenness of 
perception, a divination of the interesting points, and the 
power of carrying the reader on by easy stages, step by step, 
to a logical conclusion. In these long letters, it is marvellous 
that this geometrical method never wearies, but that it inspires 
the reader with buoyancy, life, and vital enthusiasm. One 
enthusiastic critic describing these '' marvellous " Provincials, 
said that in them Pascal employed aU kinds of eloquence . There 
was a mixture of violent and sublime satire combined with a 
logic only the more forceful for being hidden under an unstudied 
style, while the form of the work was in itself dramatic. 

But the question that has puzzled everybody in the analysis 
of the Lettres Provinciales is to understand how a scientist 
could have acquired this perfection of literary style. Could 
it be explained by the fact that he was a genius ? But genius 
unaided could never have written the Provinciales — education 
and training must have given Pegasus his wings ; and indeed, 
not content with the first expression of his thoughts, the 
author was in the habit of rewriting portions of his works, 
which would have satisfied most people on the first trial, ten 
or twelve times. 

The humorous side of the otherwise solemn controversy 
lay in the manner in which Pascal made his serious personages 
play so comical a role that in the midst of the discussion of 



200 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

the gravest subjects it was impossible to control one's mirth. 
At the outset the scathing letters were anonymous, but later 
on they were signed " Louis de Montalte." Naturally the 
general uncertainty as to the authorship created widespread 
excitement, and supposition was rife as to their source, 
even Gomberville being among those suspected. Pascal 
enjoyed the mystery keenly, and showed a boyish delight 
in adding to the universal mystification by signing the 
momentous Third Letter : 

" Your very obedient servant, E.A.A.B.P., F.D.E.P." 
(et ancien ami, Blaise Pascal, Fils d'Etienne Pascal). 

According to Sainte-Beuve,^ Pascal's idea in writing the 
Provincials was to create a party of sympathizers for the 
Jansenists among the worldly set. Strowski, on the contrary, 
analyses his motive to have been the conquest of a 
really satisfactory theory of Grace which might appeal to the 
philosophical intelligence . ^ 

By this time all the Solitaires had been obliged to leave 
Port-Royal des Champs, and at first occupying the house of 
his friend the poet Patrix (an officer of the Due d'Orleans) in 
front of the Porte St. Michael not far from the Luxembourg, 
Pascal, under the name of M. de Mons, was at the moment 
living at the inn called " Le Roi David " in the Rue des Poirees, 
back of the Sorbonne.^ It was in the rooms of the Abbe de 
Pont chateau, brother of the Duchesse d'Epernon, that the Port- 
Royalists assembled to laugh over the success of Louis de 
Montalte's ironical remarks against their enemies who had so 
often mocked at them.* M. Gilles d'Asson was at the bottom 
of the whole matter, and many of the Provincials were printed 
in his lodging. There was such a demand for the Letters that 

^ Poyt-Royal, iii. p. 260. ^ Pascal et son Temps, iii. p. 169. 

3 In the postscript to a letter dated 26th Oct. 1655, Jacqueline Pascal 
asks her brother : " Let me know, if you please, if you are still M. de Mons " 
(Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 266). 

* Although the Jansenists in general were enchanted with Pascal's elo- 
quence, M^re Angehque held steadfastly to the old-fashioned spirit of St, Cyran. 
In a letter to Le Maitre, wTitten evidently to thank him for sending her one 
of the Provincial I,etters, she said : " I do not in the least doubt that what 
you have sent me is very fine ; but it is yet to be known if silence in this time 
would not be still more beautiful and agreeable to God, who is appeased 
better by tears and penitence than by the eloquence which amuses more 
persons than it converts " (Letters, vol. iii. p. 203, 2nd April 1656). 



THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 201 

although thousands of copies of each were printed and circu- 
lated ever5Avhere, the printers were not able to satisfy the 
demand. 

Was Pascal really successful in fulfilling the different 
objects of the Provincials ? First of all in championing 
Arnauld and silencing his enemies ? 

Even before the Third Letter could be published, Pascal's 
prognostications were fulfilled, and the Sorbonne had taken 
the firm measure of condemning Arnauld' s letter and erasing 
his name from the list of Doctors of their institution. 

While awaiting news of his sentence, Arnauld was walking 
alone, in a gallery quite at the top of the monastery of the 
Champs, thinking of the words of St. Augustine : 

"As in me they have only persecuted the Truth, succour 
me. Lord, in order that I may fight for the Truth till the 
end." 

On being told of the Sorbonne's decision, Arnauld fled, luckily. 
Had he not done so, the Bastille would have swallowed up the 
Defender of the Truth, even as, a few years later, it did his 
nephew De Saci. 

Mere Angelique had previously written Arnauld that even 
if his name were effaced from among the list of Doctors, it 
would only be the better inscribed in the Book of God. 
Characteristically she added : 

" Whatever happens to you, mon tres cher Pere, God will 
be with you, and you will better serve His holy truth by 
sufferings than by writings." 

Although the Provincial Letters could not avert the 
Sorbonne's condemnation of Arnauld and his Letter, they at 
least explained the vexatious questions with 

" such skill, lucidity, and grace," ^ 

as to make them intelligible and agreeable to everybody, 
completely exonerating Arnauld from his supposed errors. 
Even the enemies of Port-Royal were obliged to confess that 
no work had ever been composed with a greater spirit of wit 
and justice.2 

With regard to Pascal's attack on the Casuists, it was said 

1 Racine, Abr^ge, p. 98. 2 ji^^^ 



202 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

that the clever pen of Montalte had made these moralists, who 
up to this time had been only faintly combated in the Univer- 
sity, the horror and laughing-stock of all the world. Brune- 
tiere, in his most delightful preface to one of the editions, 
analyzes Pascal to have been successful beyond all belief by 
the clearness of his own vision, the suppleness of his style, the 
scientific precision of his method and language, in bringing 
light into one of the most obscure and yet important questions 
which had ever agitated Christianity. It was also said that 
he drew 

" moral theology from out the obscurity of the cloister and 
the secret of the confessional into the light of day." ^ 

Racine, when enraged against his old masters of the 
Petites ficoles, exclaimed : 

*' And does it seem to you that the Lettres Provinciates are 
anything but comedies ? " 

Something greater than comedies they must have been to have 
evoked praise from such men as Boileau and Voltaire, not to 
mention a thousand other eulogies from contemporary and 
later writers. To Boileau they were the most perfect examples 
of prose in the French tongue, and he ranked their author as 
the one exception to his own dictum that the Ancients were 
superior to the Moderns. The comment of Voltaire, most 
captious of critics, is from a literary point of view the greatest 
of all encomiums : 

" The first book of genius to be seen in prose," he said, 
" was the collection of the Provincial Letters in 1654. In it 
there is not a single word which after a hundred years shows 
the change which often alters living languages. This work 
must be placed at the period of the fixation of language." ^ 

The opinion of Bossuet is indicative from the spiritual stand- 
point. When asked what book he w^ould most like to have 
written, the tutor of the Dauphin of France replied without 
hesitation : Les Provinciales. From still another point of 
view, yet a fourth critic asserted that 

1 Introduction to edition of Provinciales (Hachette, 1896) by Ferdinand 
Brunetiere, p. ix. 

* Steele de Louis XIV, iii. p. 107. 



THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 203 

" Moli^re has nothing pleasant er than the first Provincial 
nor Bossuet an5d;hing more sublime than the last." 

After these testimonies, who would not have written " comedies " 
such as these ? 

Moliere and La Bruyere in their satires on hypocrisy 
continued the work Pascal had begun. This resemblance was 
noticed in Pascal's day, for an absurd tale was circulated that 
Ces Messieurs of Port-Royal were in the habit of correcting 
the proofs of Moliere's comedies. For the matter of that, 
although Moliere was contemporary with and about the age of 
Pascal, he at that time knew none of the Port-Royalists except 
the Prince de Conti, his first patron and schoolfellow, who when 
converted turned against all plays and play-actors, Moliere in 
particular. 

The morality to be deduced from Pascal's arguments 
differed, to be siure, but little from that which had been evolved 
in other ages under the spur of indignation against corruption 
and hypocrisy. In France it had notably held sway during 
the reign of Louis xii — ^when Protestantism nearly crept into 
power — then under the great example of tolerance, Henri iv. 

But, having launched the spirit of a satire which Moliere and 
La Bruyere were to carry on, Louis de Montalte, sitting in the 
quiet and solitude of his room behind the Sorbonne, had begun 
to wonder if he knew the Nature of Man. Even while the first 
notes of his success and fame were sounding in the world about 
him, his profound mind had progressed beyond the work in 
hand, and was grasping yet another problem — one which turned 
suddenly from the worldly and satiric vein the Provincials 
embodied, and from the " morality of honest people," into the 
paths of pure religion. The result was the highest expression 
of his genius, the Pensees. 



CHAPTER IV 
MIRACLES AND SIGNS 

" Je ne serais pas Chretien sans les miracles, dit Saint Augustin " 

IT was while Blaise Pascal was absorbed in the composition 
of his Twelfth Provincial that the second event occurred 
to delay the execution of the vengeance of the enemies 
of Port-Royal. This thing touched the great Philosopher 
most nearly. Seeming to come directly from God, it belonged 
to that singular class of religious phenomena which for want 
of a better name people call miracles. From the beginning 
the elucidation of preternatural manifestations have baffled 
not only the credulous, but most particularly people of sound 
mind and heart, whose judgment and experience teach them 
the difficulty of probing the supernatural by means of the 
material senses. If the Port-Royalists, with their downright 
minds, had essayed to explain incidents of the kind, they 
must, as lovers of la VeriU, have branded them works of 
the devil. Their creed, however, taught the acceptance of 
God's decrees by faith, and they acknowledged that 

" When Faith speaks, one knows well enough that Reason 
must not say a word." 

Up to this time Port-Royal had not often been called 
upon to puzzle over the supernatural. The first really 
remarkable thing to occur in their midst was connected 
with the Fourth Solitaire, M. de Bascle,i who, shortly after 
joining the workers at Port-Royal des Champs, became so 
ill with a disease called quartan ague as to have gone into 
convulsions, and been given up by the doctors. In the hope 
of betterment, he was sent from the marshy Champs to Port- 

^ Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 173. 
204 



MIRACLES AND SIGNS 205 

Royal de Paris. After three months there, he was no better, 
and so weak that he could walk only with the aid of two 
crutches. On hearing the news of the death of St. Cyran, 
however, M. de Bascle managed somehow to drag himself 
from Port-Royal de Paris to St. Cyran's lodging opposite 
the Chartreux — quite a long distance. Ascending the stairs 
to the room where the Saint had just drawn his last breath, 
and kissing the feet of his dead master, the miracle happened. 
The cripple, who only a few moments before had hardly been 
able to move, now suddenly and miraculously threw away 
his crutches, and walked easily without any assistance down 
from the high room to the street. Some accounts say he 
returned on foot to the Rue de la Bourbe, others that he 
was persuaded to ride on St. Cyran's horse. Shortly after- 
ward he continued his way on foot to Notre Dame, where 
he gave thanks for his recovery.^ 

The next remarkable event happened four years later at 
Port-Royal de Paris. In January 1646 their first elective 
Abbess, Mere Genevieve le Tardif, was dying, and the com- 
munity being assembled round her bedside, began, according 
to custom, as the soul of this good Christian was passing, 
to intone the Subvenite. Wonderful to chronicle, as their 
own voices rose, they seemed to hear other and angelic tones 
mingling with the chant — 

" Making a supernatural harmony." 

If this were imagination. Mere Angelique de St. Jean, the 
narrator, continues, there was at least great cause for believing 
the angels rejoiced at receiving the soul of the good Abbess, 
and 

" If error was in our senses, truth was in our hearts/' ^ 

The facts of the miracle of the Sainte Epine, as told simply 
if at length by Racine, Madame Perier, and Jacqueline Pascal, 
are these : At the very moment of the censure against 
Arnauld in the Sorbonne, a certain ecclesiastic noted for his 
piety, called M. de la Potherie, had been lending to several 

1 In his Histoire, M. Le Maitre relates that De Bascle returned to Port- 
Royal des Champs in perfect health, and remained so for several years without 
any kind of an illness, working regularly with liis companion hermits {Ihid, 
D. 189). 

^ Vies Interessantes, vol. ii. p. 13, , 



2o6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

convents of Paris a sacred thorn said to be from the crown 
of Christ. The nuns of Port-Royal de Paris, although at the 
moment full of anxiety and apprehension and under the 
strain of what had happened to Arnauld, were curious 
to see this famous relic, and asked the loan of it for their 
convent. Accordingly, the Friday of the third week in Lent, 
it was placed inside the choir on a kind of altar. The com- 
munity was then told to form in procession after Vespers, 
and at the stated time, as first the nuns of profession, then 
the novices, and finally the pupils passed, each kissed the 
relic. Last of all came Margot Perier, Pascal's niece. For 
three years and a half this child of ten years of age had been 
afflicted with a lachrymal fistula in the corner of her left eye, 
and a large mark much disfigured the outside of the face. 
Within, the poison had worked great havoc, especially on 
the left side, which could not be touched without giving 
great pain, while the fester too had become so unpleasant 
as to occasion her separation from the other children. Kept 
in a room apart, she was attended out of pity by an older 
companion. Everything the eminent oculists and surgeons 
of France could do, had been done, but in vain. Finally 
the three most skilful surgeons of Paris declared that there 
was nothing left but the burning out of the whole infection. 
Just before the advent of the Sacred Thorn in the monastery 
the day had been fixed for the operation, and M. Perier, the 
father, had already left his home in Clermont to be present. 
Therefore, as the little one stood at the altar that morning, 
Sister Flavie, mistress of the pupils, looking at her with 
compassion, said kindly : 

" Recommend yourself to God, my daughter, and touch 
your sick eye with the Sacred Thorn." 

So saying, she herself helped to press the relic against the 
eye of the sufferer. Margot afterward confessed that at the 
moment her heart was filled with ecstasy of faith, and a 
deep conviction that she would be cured. As she and her 
companion, passing out of the church with the others, regained 
their room, Margot cried out joyously : 

" Sister, I have no longer anything the matter with me, 
the Sacred Thorn has cured me." 

Looking at her, the other pupil saw in reality that the child's 



MIRACLES AND SIGNS 207 

left eye now seemed quite as normal as the other, there being 
no sign of either cut or swelling. 

Imagine the excitement of the two girls ! But it was the 
hour of silence— and Lent. So, with marvellous self-control, 
they went to bed without saying a word to anybody. 

When told of the miraculous event, the Abbess, aware of 
the feeling against Port-Royal, hesitated to spread it abroad, 
and for six days afterward even several of the nuns inside 
had not heard of it. Some time later, one of the three surgeons 
who had previously attended Marguerite Perier^ came to 
Port-Royal to visit another ill person, and asked to see the 
little girl with the fistula. Brought before him, however, 
he did not recognize his former patient. Being assured that 
it was she, and filled with amaze, he made a variety of tests, 
inquiring the details of its happening. On the simple recital 
of facts, this doctor at once started off to fetch his two col- 
leagues. These gentlemen were equally amazed and be- 
wildered, confessing in their turn that God alone could have 
effected such a cure.^ Belief in the miracle of the Sacred 
Thorn was indeed universal, for even the famous enemies of 
the Jansenists could not deny the wonderful facts, and con- 
tented themselves with saying that it was a demon who had 
performed it.^ 

In November 1656, M. de Hodencq, Vicar-General of 
Paris, in the name of Cardinal Retz, stiU absent, solemnly 
approved the miracle, and the Te Deum was celebrated 
in the church of Port-Royal de Paris by the prelates of 
Paris.* 

ii$. The pious Port-Royalists accepted the manifestation 
simply, welcoming it as a sign from heaven of the equity of 
their cause. Pascal's joy and amazement at the news, which 
he looked upon under the circumstances almost as a personal 
attention from God to himself,^ can be imagined. And it was 
an inexplicable thing that in the midst of the triumph of mind 

^ Since the wonderful event the familiar name of Margot had already 
been changed into the more respectful " Marguerite," 

2 Sainte-Beuve gives a simple and logical explanation of how the miracle 
might have happened. See Port- Royal, vol. iii. p. 179. 

3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 179. 

* This approbation of the Miracle was printed in 1656 at Paris. See Tracts 
relating to the Jansenists. 

^ " My brother was perceptibly touched by this grace," says Madame 



2o8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

over matter as evidenced by the most brilliant period of the 
Provincial Letters, there should have come to Port-Royal, 
and to Pascal himself, the miracle of the Sacred Thorn. Too 
much a product of his scientific training to accept the matter 
without proof, after his first astonishment, Pascal lost no 
time ,in probing the miracle to the bottom. He consulted 
M. de Barcos, the greatest theological authority of his acquaint- 
ance, on the real definition of the term, etc., studied with 
the utmost attention the meaning, extent, and result attri- 
buted by theology to such supernatural signs. Satisfied at 
last, he then celebrated his conviction by changing his coat 
of arms to the symbol of an eye in the centre of a crown of 
thorns, with the motto : 

" Scio cui credidi " ^ (I know in whom I have faith). 

To Jacqueline Pascal, the miracle was but another evidence 
of the power of the Almighty sent to make the heart of mortals 
tremble and feel afraid. 

" It is a double joy," she wrote to her sister, " to be favoured 
by God when one is hated by men." '* Pray to God for us," 
she added, '' that He prevent us from raising ourselves in 
the one and abasing ourselves in the other, and that He give 
us grace to regard both equally as the effects of His mercy." ^ 

The wonder of it awakened her almost forgotten art of poetry, 
of which she now made use in testifying her gratitude to God. 

" Tes merveilles, Seigneur, penetrant jusqu'a moi 
Ont agreablement trouble ma solitude. 

Ce miracle etonnant, dans un divin transport 

Me presse de parler par un si saint effort, 

Que je ne puis sans crime etre encore en silence." ^ 

Perier, " which he regarded as if made to himself, it being done to a person 
who, in addition to her near relationship, was his spiritual daughter by 
baptism." 

1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, iii. p. 135. 

2 Letter of 20th March 1656 (Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p, 270). 
2 Rough translation — 

" Thy marvels, Lord, penetrating to my retreat, 
Have agreeably troubled my solitude. 

This surprising miracle, in a divine transport. 

Presses me to speak by so holy an effort 

That I cannot in sooth without crime keep silence." 

{Ibid. p. 283.) 



MIRACLES AND SIGNS 209 

Naturally the healing of Marguerite Perier 1 was followed 
by other miraculous cures. The letters of Mere Angelique 
to the Queen of Poland are full of them. The strange part 
in the whole matter was that the Sacred Thorn — which in 
awe and wonder M. de la Potherie at once after the miracle 
presented to Port-Royal — made no cures outside of the 
monastery. Ill unto death, and sending for the relic, although 
the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres kept it nine days, she died 
nevertheless. The Princesse Palatine, on the contrary, 
content in her extremity to apply a piece of linen which 
had touched it, recovered. 

Somewhat later on, another seemingly supernatural and 
miraculous sign, again in a moment of danger, was vouch- 
safed to the monastery. 

This event brings us into touch with a man of great import- 
ance in the history of Port-Royal. 

" If," said Victor Cousin, ^ " one should lose the writings 
of Port -Royal, in Champagne one would find Port -Royal 
still intact." 

Philippe de Champagne, a native of Belgium, had come over 
to France as early as 162 1, and, already a painter of note, 
having studied under Rubens, he was fortunate enough to be 
employed by Marie de Medecis in the decoration of her new 
palace of the Luxembourg, becoming in a few years so cele- 
brated in Paris that no public function was held without his 
pencil being called in to fix its souvenir on canvas. Every- 
where the walls of municipal and public buildings were 
decorated with specimens of his art,^ the magnificence of 
the Luxembourg, the Palais Cardinal, the Tuileries, and 
even the dome of the Sorbonne being due in great part to 
him. 

Strangely enough, it was M. de Perefixe, then Abbe, not 
yet Archbishop, who first told the painter of Port-Royal. One 
day the conversation between these two old friends happened 
to turn on a religious book just then making a stir in the world — 
the Book of the Frequent Communion. M. de Perefixe express- 

^ Who lived, by the way, to the age of eighty-seven, and wrote a short 
life of her uncle. 

2 Du Vrai, du Beau et du Bien, p. 235. 

3 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Pdre et Fille, p. 14. 

14 



210 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

ing great admiration for the work, Champagne asked who was 
the author. 

" It is M. Arnauld, one of the persons who conduct the 
house of Port -Royal. He is the brother of Mere AngeHque, 
the Reformer Abbess of the Monastery." ^ 

At the moment, M. de Champagne was in search of some 
such institution in which to place his two motherless girls, 
so, without more ado or inquiry, shortly after this con- 
versation with M. de Perefixe, he took both the children 
to Port-Royal de Paris, and left them there in the charge 
of the good nuns. A few years afterward one daughter died 
at Port-Royal, and shortly after the Miracle of the Sacred 
Thorn the other became a nun under the name of Soeur 
Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne. Unfortunately, she had hardly 
taken the veil, when at the age of twenty her right side became 
paralysed. Bled thirty times in fifteen months, and every 
other known remedy tried, nothing availed to bring back move- 
ment into her poor rigid members. For foiu: years, fever never 
left her night and day. Throughout, the invalid was sustained 
and encouraged by the stoical admonitions of M^re Agnes — 
principles afterward incorporated in the little book called 
L'image d'une Religieuse parfaite. A nun, said the author, 
should have an aversion for her body, regarding it as a source 
of corruption ; illness should be but a welcome discipline for 
the soul ; Death but the opening of a door into Eternal Life. 

These lessons were difficult for the young nun to practise, 
when out of doors she saw smiling Spring succeeded by the 
sadness of Autumn, as it in its turn ceded to the cold winds of 
Winter. The only change in the monotony of her life, as she 
lay extended in her chair, was when she was carried into the 
church for communion, or they brought her to the grating in 
the parloir to talk to her father. 

One day it occurred to the sister who had charge of the 
invalid, and who was touched by a sight of her sufferings, to 
ask Mere Agnes to institute a neuvaine'^ in the monastery 
for the recovery of Soeur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne. At 
first Mere Agnes refused on the principle that if God had thus 
afflicted Soeur Catherine, it was because He wished her to be ill. 

1 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, Phe et Fille, p. 26. 

2 ^ season of nine days' prayer. 



I 



MIRACLES AND SIGNS 2ii 

However, the young girl's companion begged so hard that finally 
Mere Agnes's objections were vanquished, and she consented. 
The season of prayer began on the 29th December ; it 
finished on Twelfth Night. That morning, Soeur Catherine 
had been carried to the parloir to see her father. On coming 
away, she had wanted to hear Vespers, so she was taken to the 
tribune near her room in the infirmary, overlooking the choir 
of the nuns. When Vespers was over, the poor child strove 
to put down her foot to see if she could walk, but, alas ! her 
muscles were as rigid and immovable as ever. 

" Oh, ma mere," she said in desolation to Mere Agnes, 
" if I am not cured to-morrow, I shall never be cured.'' 

That night she was worse then ever, sleepless, restless, and 
agitated by fever, and on the morrow, when asked how she felt, 
she complained of having suffered intensely, and not slept all 
night. 

During Grand Mass, they left her in her cell with the door 
open, as from there she could hear the service. Just as the 
priest intoned the words : 

" It is truly worthy and just, equitable and salutary, 
that always and everywhere we should praise Thee, O holy 
Saviour, Father all-powerful. Eternal God," 

the idea came to Catherine to try to walk. Making the attempt, 
she found that by holding on to the furniture and walls, she 
was able to use her feet. Realizing this, but too excited to 
try to walk, as the Host sounded she sank to her knees, 
then rose easily and sat down again. A nun passed. Calling 
her, Soeur Catherine begged that the sister who attended her 
should be sent for. When the latter entered the room, the 
former paralytic rose and walked toward her. Then, accom- 
panied by the sister, she went to the tribune overlooking the 
choir; and, after adoring the Holy Sacrament, proceeded 
to the cell of Mere Agnes, descending thence with the latter 
down the forty steps to the church, there to kneel before the 
Holy Sacrament and the Creche. When this was done, it 
was she who helped the aged Mere Agnes to reascend the same 
staircase leading back to their cells. 



212 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

However, Soeur Catherine's miraculous cure brought forth 
Httle fruit outside the monastery. 

From Beauvais, M. Hermant wrote to M. d'Andilly : 

" The voice of miracles makes itself heard farther than 
that of men. . . . Let us have pity on those to whom these 
prodigies are but a matter of hardening and prevarication." ^ 

But Racine does not even mention it in the Ahrege. Yet it 
created a very great work of art, now ornamenting the walls of 
the Louvre — the " Ex Voto " of Philippe de Champagne, made 
according to the inscription still to be seen on the painting : 

'' In testimony of so great a miracle, and of his joy." 

The painting, evidently depicting the moment before the 
miracle happened, represents Mere Agnes on her knees, and 
Soeur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne in a half -lying posture. 
Both have their hands joined, and are praying. 

For fourteen years Philippe de Champagne was associated 
with Port-Royal, and during that time he had painted nearly 
every one of the nuns and Solitaires, and won a way for 
both himself and his art into their confidence. ^ His were 
indeed the only creations of beauty admitted at Port-Royal. 
Like the softening influence of women, the Solitaires feared 
the power of any aesthetic emotion which might disturb 
them in their contemplation of the New Jerusalem, and they 
therefore translated art solely by its use in religion. Music 
belonged to the category of disturbing emotions, so there was no 
organ to entrance the ear, no flowers to seduce the sight or 
enrapture the sense. Moreover, on the altar no gleam of 
cancDes distracted the nuns from their penitential prayers and 
orisons. All was simple, sincere, and true. 

" There was enough without that, they thought, to excite 
piety, which has no need of things which attach the senses 
too much to transport the heart in the wounds of Jesus 
Christ." 3 

Champagne, however, was an exception — he had become 

* Godefroi Hermant, Mhnoires, vol. v. p. 424. 

2 The only treasures of the Churches of Port -Royal were the work of his 
hands. At the Champs were his famous " C6ne " (Last Supper), now in the 
Louvre, with its panels of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, while in the 
cloisters was a beautiful "Christ at the Tomb," several other canvases being 
scattered through the church. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 149. 




— a 






MIRACLES AND SIGNS 213 

an inseparable adjunct of their religion. And this was ex- 
plained by the nature of the man himself — austere and deeply 
religious, he might have been a painter-copy of St. Cyran. 
To live honestly and portray the Truth as he saw it, according 
to his inner vision — this was his Rule of St. Bernard. 

The bad odour under which Port-Royal suffered at Court 
naturally reacted on Philippe de Champagne as on other 
friends. For his last public work, the decoration of the 
Castle of Vincennes prior to the advent of the new Queen 
Marie-Therese, M. Colbert had delayed payment, treating 
the great artist like a common workman. ^ The illness 
of his daughter next caused him exquisite pain, and she had 
only just been cured when the troubles of the monastery 
removed her farther than ever away from him. But to the end 
this great painter quietly followed the principles he had ever 
practised both in his life and in his art, enduring with Christian 
piety and unconsciousness the attacks which the jealousy of 
fellow-artists made upon him, seeing with indifference such 
colleagues as Le Brun outstripping him in momentary renown. 
The obloquy attaching to his name as friend of Port-Royal, 
he accepted with the same resignation with which he had 
suffered his daughter's decision to become a nun, led her to the 
altar, and given his unique treasure to God. His last will, and 
testament breathes the same Christian spirit : 

" Considering," it ran, " that there is nothing more certain 
than death, but that the hour is not sure, I declare my firm 
wish to live and die in the sentiments of the Apostolic Roman 
Church ... all shall be done in simplicity, but I desire my 
heir to have many prayers said for me, and the sacrifice of 
the Mass performed by respectable priests. . . .'* ^ 

Among other bequests was a legacy to the Abbey of Port- 
Royal des Champs, to which his daughter now belonged and 
where she lingered on twelve years longer. 

The mention of Philippe de Champagne's death in the 
Necrologe of Port- Royal was as simple as his life and work. 
It read : 

" The 14th August 1674, decease of M. Philippe de 
Champagne, good painter and good Christian." ^ 

^ Gazier, Philippe et Jean Baptiste de Champagne, p. 68. 

2 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, P^re et Fille, p. 250. 

3 N^QYolo^e de Notre-Dame de Port-Royal, p. 330. 



CHAPTER V 

EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS ON PORT- 
ROYAL— DEATH OF ANTOINE LE MAITRE 

" La verite est bornee par les mers, les fleuves, les montagnes — un 
meridien/comme I'a dit Pascal, en decide. ... La religion est en elle-meme 
et par elle-meme. Elle est la verite sur laquelle les lois ne decident 

point." ROYER-COLLARD 

IT has been said that one way to divide up the reign of 
Louis XIV would be according to his Confessors, as his 
conduct was regulated wholly by their advice. ^ These 
important personages belonged to the Society of Jesuits, and 
it happened that at this period the priest in power was no 
other than Pere Annat, one of the authors of the Formulary. 
Recently been the subject of ridicule in connection with 
his royal master, whose youthful indifference with regard 
to religious matters was well known, the condemnation 
of the so-called Apologia des Casuistes^ by both the Pope 
and the Inquisition at about this time, covered Pere Annat 
with confusion, and gave rise to the following song at the 
expense of a Confessor who countenanced such relaxed morality. 
Put in the mouth of Louis xiv, these words went the rounds 
of Paris : 

" Le Pdre Annat est rude, 
Et me dit fort souvent 
Qu'un p6ch6 d'habitude 
Est un crime fort grand : 
De peur de lui deplaire 
Je change la Valli^re 
Et prends la Montespan." ^ 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 264. 

2 A book written by a friend of Pdre Annat's called Pere Pirot, published 
in 1657, condemned in 1659. 

3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 265. 

9H 



1 EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 215 

Nevertheless, this determined enemy of Port-Royal had 
been steadily poisoning the King's mind against the nuns and 
Solitaires, whose destruction he was bent on compassing at any 
cost. It was said that every day for months the name of 
Port-Royal was heard in the Council Chamber of the Louvre. 
Accordingly, in March 1656 an order came to Port-Royal des 
Champs for the dispersion of the Solitaires and pupils of the 
schools, and in four days the so-called " Second Dispersion " 
took place, M. d'Andilly leaving with the rest, and returning 
to Pomponne. Mere Angelique wrote the details of the dis- 
persion to the Queen of Poland, ending her letter with the 
remark : 

" Our valley has been in truth a valley of tears." ^ 

The Second Dispersion had hardly taken place before the 
Queen Mother, who had been prime mover in the order regard- 
ing Port-Royal des Champs, repented of her deed, her repent- 
ance being partly occasioned by the Miracle of the Sacred 
Thorn, partly by the Provincial Letters. Together these 
two things had so worked on her piety as to cause her to 
hesitate. As usual, her first expression of indulgence was 
evidenced toward her friend M. d'Andilly. He had been but a 
month at Pomponne when, by permission of the Queen, on the 
first of May he returned to Port-Royal des Champs, there to 
enjoy the opening of Spring. Mazarin too seemed indifferent. 
So, much to the general surprise, a lull descended upon the 
budding persecution of the Jansenists. Gradually, under the 
surety of this happy respite, and although at heart the Port- 
Royalists knew that trouble was still lurking in the backgroimd, 
the Champs again became populous, and life at Port-Royal 
de Paris also resumed its ordinary course. 

It was during this season of calm that the Grande 
Mademoiselle made her famous visit to Port-Royal des Champs 
and M. d'Andilly. When she arrived, she found her father's 
former secretary quietly translating Sainte-Therese, and on his 
conducting her through the monastery she cried out in astonish- 
ment at the sight of images of the saints in the cells of the 
nuns, everywhere quite as she was accustomed to see them 
in other orthodox convents. Although her exclamation was 

1 Letter of 24th March 1656. In speaking of the SoUtaires, Mdre Angelique 
always called them " Nos Hermites." 



2i6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

heard, no one dared, as Mademoiselle proudly asserted, to 
question her as to what it meant. M. d'Andilly was not so 
timid as the nuns, and to him the Grande Mademoiselle con- 
fessed that she had not expected to see there those symbols of 
simple devotion. M. d'Andilly 's reply was : 

'* You are going back to the Court, you might render 
testimony to the Queen of what you have seen." 

This the Grande Mademoiselle promised to do, further remark- 
ing, at the end of her visit, the pleasure she had in all she had 
seen and heard.^ 

During the respite, a great grief came to Port-Royal in 
the death of its first Solitaire, Antoine Le Maitre, who on 
Arnauld's flight after the censure had been chosen to 
accompany his uncle into hiding, in order that he might 
aid Port-Royal's controversialist with his pen. But on 
beginning again to fill his days with literary labours, the 
former man of letters found the old temptations assailing 
him once more, and even after all the years of discipline 
and self-denial he was still not strong enough to trust himself. 
He therefore gave up his place to Nicole, who from thenceforth 
became the inseparable friend and companion of the Grand 
Arnauld.2 

Alas ! for poor Le Maitre. He had never recovered from 
that concupiscence of the mind, the love of knowledge for its 
own sake with no useful object, analysed by Jansenius as the 
greatest of three sinful passions. 

" From this," said Jansenius, " have come the circus and 
the amphitheatre, and all the vanity of tragedies and comedies ; 
thence also comes the search into secrets of nature which do 
not concern us, which it is useless to understand, and which 
men wish to know only that they may know them." ^ 

Throughout the years of penitence and striving after the 
annihilation of earthly pride and vainglory, how many times 
during sleepless nights had not the Devil appeared to Le 
Maitre and whispered in his ear some point of eloquence, some 
argument to be used in one of those pleadings in which he had 

^ Mile, de Montpensier, Mimoires, vol. iii. p. 71. 

2 See Supplement au N horologe, p. 258, for Le Maitre's letter on the subject 
to M6re Agn^s. 

^ De la Reformation de I'Homme IntSrieur, translated by M, d'Andilly. 



EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 217 

once taken unique delight. Going back again to his solitude 
after the trial with Arnauld, he turned his face more resolutely 
than ever toward Heaven, crucifying the last echoes of his 
worldly ambition by a pilgrimage to Clairvaux and the shrine 
of his patron, Saint Bernard, who also had fought the battle 
of the soul in a wild solitude, and whose personality was no 
less fiery and impulsive than his own. Fortunately, the un- 
conquered Solitaire did not have to endure these struggles 
much longer, for on the 4th November 1658 he passed away.^ 

In composing the epitaph of Port-Royal's first Solitaire, 
M. Hamon emphasized especially his virtuous renunciation 
of the greatest gift God had given him — that of eloquence, 
which he replaced by the *' humility of silence,'* and yet 
which, never drying up in his breast, was generously used 
whenever needed for the good of the community he loved.^ 

On hearing of his death, Gomberville exclaimed : 

" The great orator of the French tongue is now speaking 
the language of angels." ^ 

Anne of Austria's truce lasted four years, and at the end 
of the time, Mazarin's so long apparent indifference to 
religious controversy was explained by the successful issue 
of negotiations he had been carrying on. The wedding of 
the young Louis xiv to the Infanta of Spain, Marie-Therese, 
marked the climax of the great minister's political career, 
and for a time banished all other preoccupations from the 
mind of France. On the 20th August 1660, amidst beating 
of drums and rejoicings of every kind, the imposing entrance 
of the new Queen into Paris took place. Amongst those 
looking on at the ceremony from the balcony of the Hotel 
de Beauvais at the Porte St. Antoine was the woman who 
was later to have so fatal an effect on Port-Royal — Madame 
Scarron, wife of the deformed and bitter poet of the Fronde, 
and the future Madame de Maintenon. 

Alone of all the world about them, the Solitaires and nuns 
of Port-Royal were taking little account of the feastings 
and rejoicings, the magnificence and gilded pomp. Their 
pupil, Du Fosse, had in the enthusiasm of youth been curious 
enough to view the pageant. When, after witnessing the 

^ For Le Maitre's last days, see Du Fosse, MSmoires, ii. pp. i6, 17. 
2 Ibid. p. 25. 3 jsi^crologe, p. 419. 



2i8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

grand entrance of the Queen, and the twelve hours' progress 
of the royal procession throughout Paris, he returned to the 
solitude of Les Trous, the first person he met was De Saci. 
In the midst of the quiet fields, this gentleman was pursuing 
his daily reading of the Scriptures. With his recent en- 
thusiasm still fresh upon him, Du Fosse eagerly began to 
relate the marvels he had seen, telling of the wonders of 
decoration, the majesty of Louis xiv, the beauty of the 
Spanish Infanta, covered with pearls and diamonds and 
seated in a golden chariot. Closing his book, but keeping 
his finger in it to mark his place, De Saci, with a touch of 
very unsuspected humour, said : 

" Is that all ? I had imagined diamonds larger than the 
towers of Notre-Dame ! " 

Then, opening his book again, he continued his reading of 
the wonders of the New Jerusalem, where the gates were of 
jasper, ornamented with precious stones, the streets of gold. 
Before such a description, the wonders of the Porte St. Antoine, 
with its gilded paper statues, paled indeed. ^ 

It was in the very year of Louis xiv's marriage that 
persecution boldly advanced again from its temporary 
retirement. Hardly had the young King's wedding bells 
ceased ringing, before the Lieutenant Civil d'Aubray was 
on his way to Trous to work his devastating dispersion 
of the last remnant of the Petites ficoles.^ Accompanied 
by the Procureur du Roi au Chdtelet, three commissaries, 
and a police officer, he visited Chesnai also, and ordered 
that strangers leave there within twenty-four hours. Among 
these was M. de Bernieres, forbidden from henceforth ever to 
put his house to a like purpose, and exiled to Issoudun. 

One night soon after this, a nun at Port-Royal de Paris 
had a strange dream. Feeling that a great peril was menacing 
her, and looking toward heaven, she saw in the south a 
thick cloud, and in this cloud a terrible beast, which seemed 
to be covered with smoke and of an extraordinary blackness. 
Its feet were bound, and it was making the most horrible 
groans, moving and tormenting itself as if in impatience to 
be liberated. It seemed to her, then, that some one, she 
could not see whom, came to take off its bonds, whereupon 

1 Du Fosse, Mimoires, vol. ii. p. 54. 



EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS 219 

the roaring beast took its course directly for the monastery. 
Assembled in the courtyard of the cloister, the nuns were 
tremblingly waiting to see what the horrible monster would 
do. With eyes lifted to heaven, they implored the succour 
of God. Finally, after many roars around the walls, the 
beast suddenly turned and advanced toward the Louvre, 
then again retracing its steps, came furiously onward. All 
at once, it stopped as if it had encountered some insurmount- 
able obstacle in its path ; when, bending its head, full of 
shame and confusion, it returned in silence to the place whence 
it had issued.^ 

Shortly afterward, the King, calling to the Louvre the 
heads of the Assembly still sitting in Paris, announced to 
them his desire for the entire extermination of the Jansenists. 
Three reasons, he said, caused this decision : ** his honour, 
his conscience, and the good of his State." 

" Tell me," he continued, " what must I do to best compass 
my determination ? " 

The immediate cause of the King's enmity was the 
receipt of a letter asking lenience toward the Port-Royalists, 
evidently inspired by either Arnauld or his friends, but signed 
by Cardinal Retz.^ Louis xiv had a most unpleasant recol- 
lection of the Fronde, and the very name of Retz angered 
him. He particularly resented the loyalty of the Jansensists to 
their Cardinal. A stranger visiting Paris at this epoch wrote 
with a singiilarly keen view of the situation : 

" The reason that the Jansenists are in disgrace is that 
they are strong friends of Cardinal Retz, and that it is thought 
they are a faction of his in the State." ^ 

Deliberating on the question, the Assembly, making a resolu- 
tion of their own to " exterminate and banish very far from 
France the dogmas of Jansenius," decided that the best way 
to ensure the purpose of the King was to have the Formulary 
signed not only by the ecclesiastics of France, but by all 
nuns and monks, regents and principals of colleges throughout 
the land.* 

Fifteen days after this decision, Mazarin died, and, to the 

^ Histoire des PersScutions des Religieuses de Port-Royal, pp. i and 2. 

2 See Hermant, Memoires, vol. iii. p. 162. 

' Ihid. * Ibid. iv. p. 509. 



220 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

astonishment of the world, Louis xiv declared himself Master 
of France ! At first, the defenders of Jansenius were hopeful 
that this meant a favourable change in their affairs, but when 
they saw the persons appointed by the King as his " Counsel 
of Conscience," Pere de Marca and Pere Annat, they felt that, 
with this increased power to their enemies, the enforcement of 
the Formulary was but a pretext for inevitable persecution to 
the death.^ 

* Racine, AbrSgS, p. 117. 



CHAPTER VI 
PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MERE ANGfiLIQUE 

" Votre heure est venue — void la puissance des tenebres" 

MERE ANGfiLIQUE had spent the winter of 1660-61 at 
the Champs, where, unable to recover from a severe 
illness, she continued to be in a state of great languor 
and feebleness. She had long foreseen the coming troubles, 
and exhorted the nuns to be ready for any emergency. 
Finally, on rumour of imminent disaster, she herself, in 
spite of her seventy years, her infirmities, and sufferings, 
determined in April to set out for the post of danger. As 
she got into the carriage which was to take her to Paris, 
bidding M. d'Andilly adieu, she said : 

" Good-bye, my brother ; be of good courage whatever 
happens." 

" My sister, fear nothing, I am full of courage,*' replied 
the Solitaire, somewhat pompously. 

'* Oh, my brother," exclaimed Mere Angelique, " let us 
be humble. Let us remember that humility without firm- 
ness is cowardice, but that courage without humility is 
presumption." ^ 

While on her journey, news was brought to Mere 
Angelique that the Lieutenant Civil had himself visited 
Port-Royal de Paris the day before, with the King's Order that 
pupils, postulants, and novices must leave both monasteries, 
and that the nuns were forbidden from thenceforth to receive 
any prospective nuns or pupils. Stopping short on the road, 
with the sisters who accompanied her. Mere Angelique at 
once began to sing the Te Deum, saying that one must thank 
God at all and every season. On her arrival in the Rue de la 

^ Mimoires et Relations, p. 263. 



222 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Bourbe, finding some of the nuns weeping, she exclaimed in the 
same spirit : 

" What, my daughters ! Where is your faith ? " 

Notwithstanding this courage, on seeing the next day the 
poor girls turned out of the monastery, she was almost over- 
come, especially when two novices whom she had reared from 
childhood came to ask her blessing. 

And indeed the distress and sorrow of these girls touched 
even the rude soldiers sent to tear them away from the nuns 
they loved so devotedly. 

" One would have had to possess the heart of a tiger," wrote 
Arnauld, '* not to be touched by the tears of the poor children, 
who threw themselves at the feet of the nuns, begging them 
not to let them be taken away." ^ 

From the moment of the Lieutenant Civil's first visit to 
Port-Royal de Paris, the work of persecution went relentlessly 
on. Mere Agnes added to the King's displeasure by giving 
the veil, after his order had arrived, to seven novices. On 
hearing of her action, the King at once sent a command that 
the habits of the novices be removed, and that they depart 
within twenty-four hours. ^ 

In May, Singlin, beloved Superior of Port-Royal de Paris, 
to escape a lettre de cachet exiling him to Brittany, was obliged 
to flee from the monastery into hiding. The new Superior, 
M. Bail, appointed by the Grand Vicars of Paris, was not an 
ill-intentioned man, but so prejudiced, says Racine, that 

" At the mention of Port -Royal his very hair stood on 
end." 3 

One of his first acts was to send away all Jansenist confessors, and 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. ii8. In May of the same year, M. 
Hermant, writing to the Marquise de Crevecceur at Port- Royal, spoke also 
of the " tigers," as those must have been to so treat the nuns ; but he dwelt 
on the consolation which was afforded by the constancy of the sisters under 
all their misfortunes {Mi.moires, Hermant (Gazier), vol. iv. p. 665). 

' Racine relates that these seven novices, on returning to their homes, 
could never be persuaded to give up their nun's garb. " They wore it for 
three years, always awaiting the time when it would please God to reopen 
the doors of a house to which they realized their salvation was attached" 
{AhrigS, p. 126). 

^ Ibid. p. 127. 



PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MfeRE ANGfiLIQUE 223 

this measure was followed by another visit from the Lieutenant 
Civil. At the early hour of half-past six in the morning, 
the officials knocked at the door of Madame de Sable's apart- 
ments, their purpose being to discover a suspected exit at the 
back of the establishment. The Marquise was still in bed, 
but they had her rudely awakened, and after searching her 
rooms, continued their visit to M. de Sevigne, Mile. Gadeau, 
and Mile. d'Atre, also lodging in the court. As Madame de 
Gu^mene was absent, they returned in a day or two to search 
her apartment, sealing up all the doors leading to the court — 
especially that of Madame de Sable — and ordering the outside 
walls heightened. Writing to Madame de Sable with regard 
to this occurrence. Mile, de Vertus condoned with her friend 
that there was not a man of quality among the " Council of 
Conscience," as she called it.^ 

At last M. de Contes, Dean of Notre-Dame, and one of the 
Grand Vicars of Paris, concerted with some of the Messieurs 
in drawing up a sort of compromise, whereby the nuns might 
sign the Formulary without actually discrediting themselves. 
This compromise was called the First Mandement, and Pascal is 
said to have had a hand in its composition. On the 23rd June 
1661,- all the Paris nuns signed this amended Formulary. 

While these events were going on, for two or three months 
the Champs was left in peace. But as soon as the signature 
had been accomplished in Paris, attention was turned to the 
country. It was said that just before the Lieutenant Civil 
reached the monastery there, a large oak was struck by 
lightning, and its branches broken into a thousand pieces, 
leaving the naked trunk standing alone. The nuns regarded 
this as a presage, and in reality it seems that, remaining 
without branch or foliage for four years, when the Peace of 
the Church came, the tree again put forth bud and blossom. 

It was in July that the lightning broke upon Port-Royal 
des Champs in the shape of a visit from M. Bail, attended 
by M. de Contes. Remaining two months, before the 
two Vicars left all at the Champs had signed the amended 
Formulary. 

These scenes at Port-Royal de Paris and at the Champs, 
long letters to her nuns in the country, interviews and con- 
sultations, processions in which she took part, various duties 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 1 34. 



224 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

in the monastery — ^where she was the head and the comfort — 
were at last too much for even Mere Angehque's iron will. 
One day she joined in a procession made for the purpose of 
asking God to grant the prayers of the seven dismissed novices 
that they might remain at Port-Royal. Holding a relic of the 
true Cross in her hands, and with bare feet, the heroic nun 
trailed her unwilling body the length of the cloisters, but on 
returning to the choir she fell down in weakness, and had to be 
taken to her bed, from which she was never again to rise. 
For two months she languished in great pain of body, and, 
strange to say, suffering of mind, for the fear of the Supreme 
Mystery had come to torture her soul with a last test. 

The idea of Death had always been abhorrent to Mere 
Angelique. According to her conception of the mystery, she 
could not comprehend how a Christian with faith could think 
of, or occupy himself with, anything else all his life than the 
remembrance that he had to die, and preparation for that 
terrible hour. Like Le Maitre, she too feared her Judge, and 
confessed that she felt as might a criminal awaiting sentence 
at the foot of the scaffold.^ 

While she was lying in this state, news came that the King 
was not contented with the Mandement, so the dying Mere 
Angelique was persuaded to write a last appeal to the Queen 
Mother on the ground that Her Majesty had always had such 
a regard for M. d'Andilly. In this letter, recapitulating the 
entire history of the monastery, its trials, its miracles, the 
calumnies against it, the good mother begged Anne of Austria 
to accord it her protection. Philip ii of Spain, she reminded 
the Queen, had given his to Sainte-Therese, who with the 
Fathers of her Order had in like manner been calumniated 
before the Pope by similar accusations of heresy. ^ 

Finishing this letter in the midst of convulsions and agony, 
she then refused to concern herself more with the affairs of this 
world. Death had now lost its terror, and, as she said to those 
around her, she was in a complete solitude and separation from 
all things earthly, occupied solely with the Heavenly Vision. 
Lying on her bed with her eyes raised to Heaven, she opened 
her lips only to address short impassioned words to God, and to 
recite passages from the Psalms and other parts of Scripture. 
Finally, on the Day of the Transfiguration, 6th August 1661, 

* Mimoires et Relations, p. 266. ^ du Fosse, MSmoires, ii. p. 72. 



PERSECUTION— DEATH OF MfeRE ANGfiLIQUE 225 

she passed away quietly, thanking God that she died in poverty 
of terrestrial goods. Her last words were : 

" O Jesus ! O Jesus, Thou art my God, Thou art my 
justice. Thou art my force, Thou art my all ! " ^ 

The next day, her body being exposed in the church accord- 
ing to custom, such crowds of people came to touch the body 
of the revered " Mother of the Poor," as they called her, with 
their rosaries and missals, that until her interment two sisters 
did nothing else than receive and return these articles. 

To Port-Royal de Paris was entrusted the remains of this 

" fille veritablement illustre et digne, la plus belle, la plus 
pure, la plus sainte, des figures de Port -Royal." ^ 

She was interred in the entrance to the Nuns' Choir, and 
there her ashes still remain. Piles of linen hide her tomb, no 
longer in a part of the church, but separated, and in an 
enclosure used by the Maternity Hospital as a laundry. Her 
name is seldom noticed by the humble workers who surround 
her, and thus at last she has realized the lifelong endeavour 
of her penitence to remain in the silence and in the shadow.^ 

Mere Angelique's death was followed three months later by 
that of " the first victim of the Formulary " — Jacqueline 
Pascal. This sensitively conscientious Mistress of Novices and 
Sub-prioress of Port-Royal des Champs had been through the 
humiliation of the Interrogatory of Messrs. Bail and Contes, 
and had been staunch in her defence of truth. In a letter 
to Mere Angelique de St. Jean on the signature of the Formu- 
lary, she had said : 

'' If it is not for us to defend the truth, it is for us to die for 
the truth "— 

a premonition of what was to happen to her. In her Memoires 
on the affairs of her own family and Port-Royal, Marguerite 
Perier sums up in a few words the cause of her aunt*s death : 

" My aunt was there (at Port-Royal des Champs) when 
they were ordered to send away the novices and postulants, 

1 Memoires et Relations, p. 293. 2 Nicrologe de Port-Royal. 

3 Among her last instructions was the following : " I beg that I be interred 
in the courtyard, and that after my death little foolery be made." 

" The best part of persecution," she \vrote, " is humiliation, and humiUty 
is preserved by silence. Guard it, then, at the feet of Jesus Christ, and expect 
your support from His bounty." 

15 



226 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

at the beginning of the persecution of the nuns for the signature 
of the Formulary. This latter afflicted her so sensibly that 
she said and wrote to several people that she knew she would 
die because of it, — and this indeed happened, the 4th of 
October 1661." 1 

The short but significant history of this woman of thirty- 
six, a being whom Nature had endowed rarely, but who had 
elected to allow the rich fountain of her enthusiasm to be pent 
up within the walls of a convent, and had fallen a martyr to her 
idea of a duty betrayed, brings up a question which, continually 
recurring to the human mind, is never answered satisfactorily : 
that is, the utility of self-immolation in the religious life. 
There are two opposed courses through the world : the straight 
and narrow path, and the broad road. The first is represented 
in philosophy by Stoicism, the second by Epicureanism. 
Port-Royal portrays, says M. Cousin, the stoical study of the 
problem of human life, while Jacqueline Pascal was the extreme 
of even the Port-Royal morahty, her whole life, instead of 
being a gloriously worked-out progression, the beginning of 
a triumphant march through all phases of being up to the 
eternal existence in God, was in reality only a death in life — 
refusal to accept the vital joy which would have been hers for 
the taking. This is a broad criticism, and one which has its 
exceptions, as in the case of Mere Angehque and Mere Agnes. 
Their example and influence reached out into the mass and 
body of their fellow-creatures,^ their interest in the world 
about them being comparatively warm and human . J acqueline 
too lived " in humflity and silence," and died from remorse at a 
lapse of conscience. 

^ Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 80. 

2 We have a confirmation of this in the epitaph contained in the Nicrologe, 
i. p. 312, which speaks of Mdre Angehque as a " Coeur fiddle a son epoux, 
et capable par son etendue de comprendre non seulement un monastere, 
mais I'Eglise entiere . . . tout ce qu'elle a fait, est cependant moindre que 
ce qu'elle a ete." 



CHAPTER VII 
THE CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE 

" Toute notre dignite consiste done en la pensee. C'est de la qu'il faut 
nous relever, non de I'espace et de la duree, que nous ne saurons remplir. 
Travaillons done a bien penser : Voilci le principe de la morale." — Pascal, 
PensSes 

ON hearing the news of his sister's courageous and pious 
death, Blaise Pascal gave an incontestable proof of 
Gilberte's assertion that, although he had an extreme 
tenderness for his family, his feeling did not go as far as 
" attachment." His only comment was : 

" May God give us grace to die as well ! " 

And when Gilberte showed her sorrow at their loss, he rebuked 
her, sa5dng : 

" Do not grieve over the death of the Just." ^ 

Since his conversion and consequent religious austerities, 
Pascal's health, if not improved, had at least been kept more 
under his control : he seemed to be able to rise above it, 
and to carry the burden of the flesh cheerfully and joyfully. 
He never did or thought anything by halves. Thus, in 
going into religion, the zealot in him established two rules 
to which thereafter he rigidly adhered : the renouncing of 
pleasure and the casting off of superfluities. Beyond the 
employment of a cook and some one to run errands and do 
unavoidable things, he curtailed to a minimum the ministra- 
tions of those about him ; his room was shorn of hangings ; 
his whole time consumed in prayer and the reading of the 
Bible, in which he took extraordinary pleasure, and which he 
said was not a science of the mind but of the heart, intellig- 

1 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal, 
227 



228 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

ible only to the upright. ^ His sister Gilbert e relates that he 
wore an iron belt with sharp points round his waist, and when 
any thought of vanity, pleasure or attachment came to him, 
he would strike himself roughly with his elbow to make the 
points dig still farther into his flesh. This practice he con- 
tinued throughout his life, even though at the last his maladies 
grew so acute that he could no longer either read or wTite. 
Being thus reduced to spending his days without occupation, 
the iron belt was more than ever needed, he said, to keep him 
strong in his views of salvation. 

His new love for the science of religion had apparently 
swallowed up the former devotion to the mathematical sciences, 
but it is human to read that when tortured by pain he again 
resorted to his old genius. During sleepless hours entailed 
by a cruel toothache, there occurred to his mind, quite un- 
expectedly, some thoughts on the subject of the roulette or 
cycloid, and in less than eight days, in the midst of the most 
intense suffering, he found a method which solved problems 
with regard to this geometrical curve which Roberval and 
TorricelH had begun but had not finished. Complicated and 
limited under the treatment of these men, in Pascal's hand 
this method became general and uniform. ^ 

This digression of the hours of suffering seems to have been 
Pascal's only return to his former pursuits, and, writing to 
Fermat two years before his death, he confessed that although he 
found geometry the highest exercise of the mind, at the same 
time he recognized it to be so useless in the nobler science of 
the heart and soul, that he would not differentiate between a 
skilled geometrician and a simple artisan. ^ 

Unfortunately it was not long before Pascal's health began 
to be so much worse that books and writing were interdicted, 
and he was forbidden any work. Everybody about him 
endeavoured to follow out this prohibition by entertaining 
the sick man with things that required no apphcation or con- 
centration. Although they could keep books from him, and 
prevent him from doing actual labour, it was impossible to 
hinder his active mind from producing. Sometimes he had the 

1 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal, p. 43. 

* Essay on Pascal's scientific works, by Bossut, PensSes, ed. Louandre, 

p. 91. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 318. 



CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE 229 

strength, when these ideas occurred to him, to sit down at once 
and develop them ; at other times, both the energy and the 
power to exert his brain were lacking. Being fully conscious — 
saddest thought of all — that his memory in its present state 
was no longer retentive, and not wishing to lose these con- 
ceptions, he adopted the method of noting his reflections as they 
came to him on the first piece of paper at hand, indifferent 
whether with pen or pencil, often during his walks even 
writing on his nails. ^ For four years this continued — the 
moment never arrived when the suffering thinker could bring 
himself to the task of marshalling his thought forms into order 
and sequence, so that, when finally Death came, it found the 
Pensees a voluminous bundle of notes, unarranged, unassorted, 
and incomplete. 

One of the last acts of his life shows most graphically 
the change in him, and illustrates the sincerity of the Pensees, 
After the revocation of the First Mandement, the learned 
doctors and confessors of Port-Royal often met together to hold 
counsel as to how to act in the event of a Second. One day, 
after many things had been written for and against, a last 
meeting was called in Pascal's rooms. On one side were Arnauld, 
Nicole, Sainte-Marthe, and with them most of the party. 
On the other, Domat, Roannes, Perier, and Pascal. Each 
man expressed his opinion, but Blaise Pascal, who had 
supported the effort at a settlement which had resulted in the 
signing of the First Mandement with the amendment affixed 
to it, was now found to differ absolutely. He had made his 
last compromise. Earnestly he expressed his opinion that in 
conscience they could not sign, for to do so, he said, would be 
to tacitly condemn the Efficacious Grace of God, which was the 
corner-stone of the faith of Jansenism.^ After a long dis- 
cussion, everybody there sided with Arnauld and Nicole, the 
two authors of the proposed Second Compromise, against 
Pascal and his three friends. At that moment a strange thing 
happened to Pascal. He suddenly fainted away. This 
broke up the assembly, and when the Periers, Domat, and 
Roannes were left alone with Pascal, Madame Perier asked her 
brother the cause of the accident. 

" When I saw," said Pascal, " persons whom I had re- 

1 Strowski, Pascal et son Temps, vol. iii. p. 220. 
^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 355. 



230 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

garded as those to whom God had made Truth known, and 
who should have been its defenders, shaken and giving hands 
to the fall, I confess that I was seized with such pain that I 
could not endure it, but had to succumb." ^ 

111 before, from the hour of this meeting in his rooms 
Pascal's malady grew worse and worse, and in six months 
he followed his sister Jacqueline, his death, like hers, being 
undoubtedly hastened by disappointment in Port-Royal. 
Two months before the end, leaving his own house, he 
went to live with Madame Perier. This move was occasioned 
by the illness of the child of his housekeeper with the smallpox. 
As Madame Perier had little children, she naturally could not 
run the risk of visiting her brother under the circumstances. 
Rather than disturb the sick child, Blaise inconvenienced 
himself, saying : 

" There is less danger for me in this change of habitation, 
therefore it is for me to go." 

The elder sister, who nursed him so faithfuUy in his last 
illness, tells us how the great philosopher and Christian 
received the final mystery. At the highest point of his 
agony, a Stoic still, he exclaimed : 

*' Do not pity me, illness is the natural state of Christians." 2 

How different this from the famous epigram on the Dis- 
cours de V Amour : 

" How happy is the life that begins with love and finishes 
with ambition ! If I had to choose, I would choose that." ^ 

After many warnings, death finally came so suddenly that 
the watchers by his bedside feared he would go without the 
supreme consolation ; but at midnight, at the very moment 
when they thought he was dying, the Cure of St. £tienne 
du Mont, who, with M. de Sainte-Marthe had been attending 
him, entered the sick-room bearing the Sacrament. Half 
rising in his bed, the dying man received the extreme unction 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 356. 

2 Madame Perier, Vie de Pascal (Louandre edition of the Penshs), p. 69. 
^ Qu'une vie est heureuse quand elle commence par I'amour et qu'elle 

finit par I'ambition ! Si j'avais a en choisir une, je prendrais celle-la." 



CULMINATION OF PASCAL'S RELIGIOUS LIFE 231 

with so tender a joy that he shed tears, and, blessing the holy 
pyx, whispered : 

" May God never abandon me ! " 

It has been said that this great man never belonged to 
Port-Royal at all, and two years after his death the Arch- 
bishop of Paris tried to prove this by the testimony of the 
Cure of St. fitienne, from whom he extracted a kind of declara- 
tion that Pascal had blamed Arnauld and the other Messieurs 
and retracted his Jansenist sentiments. The Jesuits gladly 
took hold of this testimony for their own uses, but it was 
afterwards proved that the Cure had misunderstood Pascal's 
words. Convinced by the philosopher's family that Pascal 
was more really akin to St. Cyran and Jansenius than even 
Arnauld himself, the Cure then withdrew his statements. 
Only the night before his death, Pascal had confessed to 
M. de Sainte-Marthe, and during his last illness, not only 
Arnauld, but Nicole and others of Ces Messieurs, had been 
admitted to his bedside. 

Pascal had himself, it is true, denied connection with 
Port-Royal in one of the Provincial Letters. In reply to 
Pere Annat's challenge to " The Secretary of Port-Royal," 
he wrote in the 17th Provincial : 

" You suppose primarily that he who is wTiting the Letters 
is of Port -Royal. . . . Thus I have not great trouble in de- 
fending myself of the accusation because I do not belong to it, 
and I will refer you to my letters, in which I say that / am 
alone, and in proper terms, that I am not at all of Port -Royal." 

The first two Provincial Letters were, however, actually 
written from Port - Royal des Champs. Afterward, when 
living behind the Sorbonne, the Secretary of Port-Royal dined 
every day with the other exiles. 

It is true that in his spirit Pascal differed from the later 
apostles of Jansenism ; for, while they were essentially theo- 
logians, and reasoned from that standpoint, Pascal, on the 
contrary, was a scientist, and pursued the simple decisive 
system of geometry, deducing truths from no theoretical 
point, but from his own experience. He himself had actually 
undergone that efficacious and sufficient grace of God which 
made Jansenism a living truth. The blood of Christ had 



232 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

been shed for the being elected and singled out from among 
his fellows, and that favoured person was he. 

Once aroused, Blaise Pascal had gone to even greater ex- 
tremes in the rigour of his religious austerities than his sister. 
And he has been called the " Exaggeration of Port-Royal," ^ 
as well as of the religious spirit of the seventeenth century. 
Yet their individual conceptions of religion were very different. 
Jacqueline was a person of little if any imagination : no 
picture ever came before her mind to lighten stern reality ; 
and her methods of reflection were, strange to say for a poet 
— as Blaise himself said — '' as brutal as a blow with a stick." 
Blaise, on the contrary, had an imagination of fire. He 
seems, therefore, a more human character than his sister, 
for, while her greatest claim to remembrance was the influence 
she exerted on her brother, he, even in the scourging of his 
own flesh, used the tremendous powers of his mind and heart 
in the defence and promulgation of the truth as he under- 
stood it. 

And by spiritual fellowship he belonged indubitably to the 
great souls of Port- Royal: to St. Cyran,Mere Angelique, Singlin. 
With them he will ever be classed. Yet it was not through 
the Provincials — however much they defended Port-Royal in 
the moment of its need — that he approached the monastery. 
His real connection, like that of Racine, came more surely 
through the culmination and latest expression of his religious 
maturity: his Pensees. In this work he denies the essence 
of the Provincials — ^which is that of fighting the world with 
its own weapons — and returns to the true spirit of St. Augustine 
when he wrote : 

" Assuredly the laws of language are not written so deeply 
on our hearts as the rule of conscience : * Do not to another 
what thou wouldst not that he should do unto thee.* " 

^ V. Cousin, Jacqueline Pascal, p. 339. 



CHAPTER VIII 

A FORTUNATE RESULT OF THE PERSECUTIONS- 
INTEREST OF THE DUCHESSE DE LONGUEVILLE 

" Vous serez comme des Dieux " 

THE silver lining to the heavy cloud hanging over Port 
Royal in 1662 was the interest which the sufferings 
of the nuns occasioned in the breast of a distinguished 
penitent associated with the neighbouring Convent of the 
Carmelites. 

Sister to the Grand Conde, a princess of the blood and 
cousin to Louis xiv, Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Duchesse 
de Longueville, had had a history of unexampled brilliance 
and sadness combined. Even now her name never evokes 
the picture of a stern, serious, and repentant sinner, rather 
that of a young, beautiful, aristocratic, and gracious but 
indiscreet woman of the world, surrounded by lovers, lights, 
gaiety, music, and voluptuousness. Yet nearly half of her 
life was spent, as the epitaph written on her tomb in the 
Church of St. Jacques du Haut Pas testifies : 

** detached from all things of the earth, and from life 
itself ; and completely occupied with thoughts of eternity." 

What a history hers of love and war and heroic deeds ! 

Her father, Henri 11 de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, was 
that same cousin of Henry iv, husband of Charlotte de Mont- 
morency, who had flown with his bride to Brussels out of 
reach of the amorous King. On Henry iv's assassination, 
the Prince, considered by some as the rightful heir to the 
throne, was tempted to usurp the kingdom, but, sailing over 
from Holland with his adherents, he found in France not a 
crown, but arrest and imprisonment. On the 28th August 



234 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

1619, Anne Genevieve was born within the austere walls 
of her^father's prison at Vincennes. Two months afterward, 
Louis XIII restored to the Prince de Conde not only his 
sword and his liberty, but his princely rank and ancestral 
estates. 

The early life of Mile, de Bourbon was spent in the Hotel 
de Conde at Paris, an immense palace which occupied the 
site of the present Odeon. The Princesse de Conde, her mother, 
while fond of admiration, was also very religious, and it was 
her custom to make frequent visits to the Convent of the 
Carmelites. From her earliest years the little Anne accom- 
panied her mother on these visits. Piety was therefore her 
first passion. She loved the nuns, and for a time religion 
became so real to her that it obscured comprehension of any 
other emotion. At thirteen, absolutely ignorant of the 
world and her own nature, she announced her desire to enter 
the convent of the Carmelites as a nun. 

But Madame la Princesse, however religiously disposed 
herself, could not conscientiously allow her young daughter 
to carry out such evident fanaticism. Instead of the convent, 
therefore. Mile, de Bourbon was told that by decree of both 
parents she was to enter society. Hitherto the slightest 
social duties had bored her inexpressibly, yet when her mother 
questioned her concerning her indifference she had been politic 
enough to reply : 

" You, Madame, have such touching graces, that as I only 
go about with you, and appear after you, one finds none in 
me." 1 

On learning that she must now make her formal entrance 
into society, the young Princess went to consult her dear 
Carmelites as to what to do. They counselled her to obey 
her parents, so, making a compromise with her conscience by 
putting a cilice underneath her lovely gown and sparkling 
jewels, Anne Genevieve made ready for her debut at the 
famous ball given by Louis xiii at the Louvre. From the 
moment Mile, de Bourbon entered the ballroom that night 
of the i8th February 1635 a wave of admiration passed 
through the assembled multitude of courtiers, and instantly 
she was surrounded by the handsomest and most distinguished 

1 Villefore, Vie de Madame la Duchesse de Longueville, p. 13. 



A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 235 

of the land. Heaped with adulation and flattery, the subtle 
poison sank so quickly into the heart beating under the 
cilice, that on leaving the scene of her triumph its owner sought 
in vain in her soul for her former distaste of society. It 
had vanished, as from that hour disappeared also her deep 
religious desire to become a nun. Although she still con- 
tinued to visit the good Carmelites from time to time, and 
corresponded with them all her life, she soon forgot the 
language of piety, and was dumb in their presence. She 
had descended from heaven to earth, drawing down with 
her the ladder by which she had ascended. 

Madame de Motteville describes her beauty with the pen 
of an enthusiast.^ It consisted essentially in a certain in- 
comparable charm of complexion, that " tint of pearl " for 
which she became renowned. Her eyes were blue, sweet 
and brilliant ; her hair silver blonde and like an aureole 
round her head. All this, added to an air of perfect distinction, 
gave her an irresistible allurement felt by men and women 
alike. 

It so happened that Mademoiselle de Bourbon's entrance 
into society coincided with her eldest brother's return from 
the Jesuit College at Bourges, where he had been finishing 
his education. With admiration and affection the young 
Due d'Enghien, afterward famous as the Great Conde, made 
firm friends with Anne, accompanying her and his mother 
to the Hotel de Rambouillet, then at the very zenith of its 
vogue and brilliancy. Here brother and sister both shone 
by their attainments. Queen of all activities, discussions, 
intrigues, around the blonde aureole of the Princess revolved 
popularity, fortune, honour. 

Popular in a less precieux manner than his sister, the 
Due d'Enghien did not spend his time sighing and making 
compliments, but in laughing with Voiture and the other 
wits, and in admiring Corneille. Early in his career he had 
adopted " Noblesse oblige " as his device, and had learned 
to subdue his own inclinations to the obligations imposed 
upon him by his birth and rank. Thus, in 1641, he obeyed 
the command of his father, and, breaking with the woman 
he really loved, for ambition's sake, he married the young 
and awkward Mile, de Breze, niece of the powerful Richelieu ! 

1 Memoires, ii. pp. 14-20. 



236 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

The year after her brother's marriage, Mile, de Bourbon 
was in her turn made the victim of an ill-assorted union. 
At that date Conde, intent only on averting for his sister 
the fate which he had endured — marriage into the house of 
Richelieu — hurriedly united her to a gentleman twenty-four 
years older, a widower with a grown-up daughter of seventeen, 
but one who had the distinction to be, after the princes of 
the blood, the greatest gentleman in France — the Due de 
Longueville. The wedding was gay and brilliant in the 
extreme. But from the beginning marriage brought the 
young bride little happiness. During the first year her 
beauty was threatened by an attack of smallpox, and all 
her friends, save only Mile, de Rambouillet, fled from her 
side. Singularly enough, the dread disease spared her, and 
left her more triumphantly beautiful than before. Then 
scandal was wrongly fixed upon her shoulders by jealousy, 
and the affair of a falsely attributed love-letter brought into 
general notice by her relatives demanding public reparation. 
Some people asserted that hidden behind the windows of 
the house of the old Duchesse de Rohan in the Place Royale, 
Madame de Longueville herself was so cold-blooded as to 
witness the resultant duel. If, indeed, she was looking out 
of those windows, she saw a sight that must have remained 
in her memory throughout many sleepless nights, for the 
Due de Guise, the champion of Madame de Montbazon, who 
had started the scandal, kiUed her own perfectly blameless 
" martyr," the Comte de Coligny. Nor could the following 
song which went the rounds of Paris diminish her self- 
reproach : 

" Essuyez vos beaux yeux, 

Madame de Longueville, 
Essuyez vos beaux yeux. 
Coligny se porte mieux 
S'il a demande la vie, 
Ne Ten blamez nullement 
Car c'est pour etre votre amant 
Qu'il veut vivre eternellement." ^ 

Soon after wedding Mile, de Bourbon, the Due de Longue- 
ville was sent on a diplomatic mission to Miinster, and it 
was at this period, when left behind in Paris, that Madame 
de Longueville met the fatal influence of her life, the Prince 

^ Madame de Motteville, Memoires, i. p. 201. 



A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 237 

de Marcillac, afterward Due de la Roehfoueauld. Opinions 
differ as to the nature of the relationship between the author 
of the Maxims and Madame de Longueville. Yet upon a 
conception of it depends any real understanding of the life 
of either. M. Cousin, Madame de Longueville's admiring 
biographer, almost her lover, two centuries after she had left 
the flesh, anathematizes La Rochefoucauld as the basest of 
men,i and attributes his so-called love for Madame de Longue- 
ville uniquely to a desire to obtain the favour of her brother 
the Great Conde. Other authors make Madame de Longue- 
ville out a cruel Circe, who, after playing on the affections 
of men, coldly dismissed them from her side. La Roche- 
foucauld is the witness to his own perfidy, as in his Memoires 
he confesses that in attaching himself originally to Madame 
de Longueville he was actuated by desire for revenge against 
Anne of Austria and Mazarin, whom he had once served, and 
who were now refusing him advancement. 

There seems little doubt that love for La Rochefoucauld 
precipitated Madame de Longueville into the Fronde — that 
humorous war of self-seekers, in which the feminine element 
prevailed, and wherein gallantry ruled women and warriors 
alike — and that it was for him that she committed all the 
sins of which she repented during twenty-seven years. 2 

The rest of the story of the two lovers is sordid enough. By 
1 65 1, having personally experienced the misery of war in the 
devastation of his family estates, La Rochefoucauld was tired of 
the contest, and of his love. Madame de Longueville, on her 
part, still devoted to him, wished to continue the struggle in 
order to avoid rejoining her husband. The end was evident 
and inevitable, — growing coolness on the part of the Duke ; the 
succumbing to a new excitement on the part of this essentially 
subjective intrigeuse, to whom the pleasing of some one was an 
ever-present necessity. 

Thus when, in 1652, the signing of the Treaty of Ruel 
brought peace to Paris, it awakened Madame de Longueville 
to disillusionment and despair. Little by little she had 

^ Madame de Longueville, p. 350 (edition 1853). 

2 Her stepdaughter, the Duchesse de Nemours, wrote {Mhnoires, p. 18) : 
"It was La Rochefoucauld who insinuated to this Princess so many crude 
and false statements, ... as he had a very great influence with her, and as 
he thought only of himself, he made her engage in all the intrigue in which 
he took part, only in order to accompUsh his own interest thereby." 



238 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

been tasting the dregs of life, her adventurous spirit gradually 
extinguished, not by failure of plans, not by misfortune, 
but by the bitterness of love grown cold, of affection proved 
false and worthless. Through these things she had come to 
realize how unworthy any human creature is of either love 
or esteem, and through sorrow learned that to God alone belongs 
devotion and complete abandonment. ^ In this state of mind 
she bethought herself of her old friends the nuns. Writing 
in 1653 from Bordeaux to these dear Carmelites, she wearily 
confessed her desire to end her days with them, adding that 
what had brought her to this resolution was the fact that any 
attachments to the world of any nature whatever she may 
formerly have had were now all broken and severed. 
k"^ Under the pressure of this feeling a great desire for penit- 
ence now possessed her. It would have been easy to take 
refuge with the nuns, and to give herself up to the passive 
virtues connected with conventual life. That she realized 
another and greater ideal of penance in going back to her 
husband, her children, and those homely domestic duties 
connected with the station of wife and mother, demonstrates 
her intrinsic sincerity and worth. Her actual religious awaken- 
ing took place in 1654. At Moulins, in the Convent of the 
Filles de la Visitation, where she had gone from her exile after 
the Fronde to visit her aunt, its Superior, the veil seemed to 
faU from her eyes, and in her own words : 

" I found myself like a person who suddenly awakens 
from a long sleep in which she has dreamed she was great, 
happy, honoured, and esteemed, and discovers that she is 
loaded with chains, pierced with wounds, overcome with 
languor, and shut up in an obscure prison." ^ 

Thus, when shortly afterward the Due de Longueville came to 
fetch his wife into his government of Normandy, he found the 
former imperious Princess become a humble penitent, deter- 
mined to atone for her sins against God and man. 

While living in Normandy during the next few years, Madame 
de Longueville occasionally came to Paris, and in the meantime 
exchanged many and frequent letters with Madame de Sable. 
It is to the preservation of these more than two hundred 

1 Madame de Motteville, Mimoires, iii. p. 472. 

2 Lettre a Mere Agnes aux Carmelites, 1 1 Juin 1653. 



A FORTUNATE RESULT OF PERSECUTIONS 239 

documents, which should have been burned, according to 
promise, but which were preserved by Madame de Sable's 
secretary and confidant, Dr. Valant, that we owe many details 
of her life. 

In 1660, Madame de Sable wrote reproaching her friend for 
not coming to see her at Port-Royal, and attributing this 
omission to the trouble the Jansenists were then having. 
Madame de Longueville replied : 

" All the Jansenism in the world would not have prevented 
me from going to see you had I been longer in Paris." ^ 

In 1 661 she wrote again in answer to a similar reproach : 

" The disturbance at your house would not keep me from 
going there if I had had the design. I shall immediately 
decide upon it. Therefore I shall see you on Wednesday, 
and we will speak of this affair, and of a thousand other things." 

" This affair " meant the Jansenist cause. Although for many 
years Madame de Longueville had had leanings toward Port- 
Royal, having been one of those impressed with the Book 
of the Frequent Communion, finding in it, as in all the 
writings and manners of Ces Messieurs, a politeness which 
charmed her,^ no doubt the talk with Madame de Sable with 
regard to the persecution then going on, at the interview above 
mentioned, was the means of bringing her eventually to Port- 
Royal. 

And it was through Madame de Sable that shortly after- 
ward the Duchess asked for an interview with Mere Angelique. 
On seeing the faith and courage of this great saint, her own 
heroic spirit rose to meet that of the then dying religieuse. 
It is said that her one visit with Mere Angelique accom- 
plished more than Madame de Sable had been able to effect in 
months of exhortation : from that moment she was devoted 
heart and soul to the cause of Port-Royal persecuted. ^ On her 

^ V. Cousin, Madame de SahU, Lettre du 31 Dec. 1660. 

2 Rapin, MSmoires, vol. i. p. 35. 

® M. Cousin explains this devotion as follows : "It was because in Madame 
de Longueville, side by side with the angelic sweetness which the unanimous 
testimony of contemporaries attributes to her, there was a pride which rendered 
odious to her all tryanny, and inclined her to the side of the oppressed. It 
was because Port-Royal had for her the attraction of a persecuted cause. . . , 
She became a Jansenist through generosity, admiration, friendship" {Madame 
de Sable, p. 223). 



240 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

part, Mere Angelique was at once enthusiastically sympathetic 
with Madame de Longueville, and wrote to Madame de Sable : 

"Tout ce que j'ai vu en peu de temps de cette princesse 
m'a semble tout d' or fin." 

At once, too. Mere Angelique divined the new penitent's 
need for spiritual direction, and desired for her the guidance of 
SingHn, her own director. Although the latter w^as in hiding 
at the time, through the means of Mere Angelique, who knew 
his whereabouts, he was induced to consent to visit Madame 
de Longueville in her house at the Carmelites, and by adopting 
the disguise of a physician in an enormous wig and dark brown 
mantle, managed to enter unsuspected. 

It did not take the acute healer of souls long to discover 
his new patient's weak points, but he also found her determined 
to correct them. Under his direction she wrote a long 
analysis of her own character, and the faults which had com- 
passed her divergence from the straight path, couched in terms 
of the greatest candour and humility. She was clear-sighted 
enough to trace all her misfortunes back to the besetting sin of 
pride which, she confessed, had made her firm in the belief 
that her virtue could not be shaken, and induced her to rely on 
her own character in the conquering of temptation. 
" Vous serez comme des Dieux," 

the world had said to her. As she thus reviewed her life, 
horror of what she had been led her to the very borders of 
that greatest of all dangers, discouragement. It was Singlin 
who saved her from this pitfall, by inducing her to divert 
her mind and heart by doing good to others. He suggested 
the compensation of those whom during the Fronde she had 
been instrumental in ruining. This wise counsellor also advised 
her to devote herself to the education of her children, and to 
remain in the world with the new ideal of piety and unselfishness. 
On M. Singlin's death, in 1664, Madame de Longueville was 
again thrown into distress, for she was still very dependent on 
spiritual advice. Her loss was lessened a short time later by 
a determination to put herself under the direction of M. 
de Saci. 



CHAPTER IX 
OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 

" Ah ! pour etre devot, je ne suis pas moins homme." 

Le Tartuffe, MoLifiRE 

THE Grand Conde was not Madame de Longueville's only 
brother. Younger than either of them, and in every 
way a contrast, was Armand de Bourbon, Prince de 
Conti. This youngest son of the Prince de Conde was a great 
contrast to his elder brother. While Louis, Due d'Enghien, 
afterward the Grand Conde, was tall, handsome, and manly, the 
Prince de Conti was small, ugly, and effeminate. The one was 
destined for war and battle, the other for the Church. Both 
were educated in Jesuit Colleges, both scholarly, the younger 
surpassing in this respect the elder, for while Conde lost his 
taste for learning amid the excitement of the bivouac and the 
attack, Conti fostered his inherent love for letters in the 
leisure moments which are the luxury of a Prince endowed from 
an early age with rich ecclesiastical benefices. In addition to 
the tastes of the scholar, the Prince de Conti possessed other and 
less worthy inclinations, which led him into extremes of dissipa- 
tion. Meeting his beautiful sister on her return to Paris just 
before the Fronde, when he was but nineteen, she ten years 
older, he fell desperately in love with her,i and during the early 
years of the struggle he blindly followed her lead in all things, 
even to j oining the Frondist party. Afterward, recovering from 
his infatuation, he abandoned his sister's cause, and made his 
peace with Mazarin by a marriage with the finest of the great 
Cardinal's nieces, Anne-Marie de Martinozzi, who, however, at 

1 " II adorait sa soeur, et elle exer9ait sur lui un empire mele d'un peu 
de ridicule, et qui dura plusieurs ann6es " (Cousin, Madame de Longueville, 
p. 324). 

16 



242 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

seventeen, when he married her, was frankly nothing but " an 
honest pagan." 

Made Governor of Languedoc, the Prince de Conti at length 
falling ill at his chateau of Les Granges des Pres at Pezenas, 
Fate ordained that he should be visited by the pious M. 
Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, who later on became one of Port- 
Royal's most faithful allies. Taking advantage of his oppor- 
tunity, M. Pavilion succeeded in putting the sins of his 
penitent so graphically before him that the facile heart of 
the Prince was converted to the truths of religion. Being 
obliged to devote his time to other things, the Bishop turned 
the daily direction of his new convert over to M. de Ciron, 
Chancellor of the University of Toulouse. As Armand de 
Bourbon's temperament led him to extremes in all things, his 
penitence followed the characteristics of his years of dissipation. 
He wished to give up his worldly goods and enter a convent, 
but this his wise guides would not allow. They counselled 
him to remain in the world and there to practise charity and 
justice. Under their guidance he made restitutions of over two 
millions to the people who had suffered in the Civil wars, and 
restored the 40,000 livres of income which belonged to the 
various abbeys with which he had been endowed.^ The 
progress of his devotion can be followed in the letters of his 
wife, the Princess, who also became converted, and who had a 
real affection for her husband. 

The Princess had much to work against in her religious 
life, but gradually by sincere effort she subdued the inclina- 
tions of her passionate nature, and followed her husband's 
lead in austerities and generous actions. After a second 
retreat at Aleth, she was so touched by penitence that in the 
desire to make restitution in the provinces of Berry and 
Champagne ravaged by famine, she sent all her jewels to Paris 
to be sold. Fontaine relates ^ that when giving up a very 
beautiful collar of pearls belonging to this collection, taking it 
in her hands and gazing at it, she finally heaved a little sigh as 
reluctantly she put it down again. 

1 During this period of his Ufe the Prince de Conti also devoted himself 
to literary work, writing on the text of Madame de Sable's Essay on the 
Comedy a TraitS de la Comedie et des Spectacles seloti la tradition de I'Eglise, 
a very moral pamphlet on the Duty of the Great, etc. etc. 

2 M^moiV^s, ii. p. 471. 



OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 243 

For a long time, owing to the later events of the Fronde, 
Madame de Longueville, naturally resenting her brother's 
desertion of the cause and his marriage with the niece of 
Mazarin, had not been friends with the Contis, but three years 
after her own conversion she and the Prince and his wife were 
brought together again by their common religious enthusiasm, 
and Madame de Longueville quickly acquired a great liking for 
her young and beautiful sister-in-law. In her own sad know- 
ledge of the pitfalls of society, she protected the Princess from 
accepting a high position at Court, lest a too-evident admiration 
of the King might react to her disadvantage.^ 

Worn out at last by the excesses of his life and his 
austerities, the Prince de Conti died in 1666 at the age of 
thirty-seven. After his death, the two sisters-in-law became 
more and more drawn to each other in their ardour for 
Port-Royal, Madame de Longueville interesting the Princesse 
de Conti in her negotiations for the Peace of the Church. 
So indefatigable were both ladies in religious matters, that 
they were ironically called " Les Meres de Tfiglise." ^ And 
the souvenir of Anne-Marie de Martinozzi, Princesse de Conti, 
fills one with a feehng of tender interest and regret. Though 
there were many worldly friends of Port-Royal more fervent 
and serious than she, her devotion to the cause was strong and 
unshakable, her piety so mixed with human weakness and 
caprice that it loses for unregenerate souls the awe with 
which devotes more strictly Port-Royal in their expression 
inspire. 

It seems strange that Madame de Sevigne, who so raptur- 
ously admired the great souls of Port -Royal, and aspired after 
their goodness, never actually became a devote. Her hfe, 
nevertheless, was human, kind, and generous ; she spoke ill of 
no one, and if she led nobody toward Heaven, she certainly 
made earth happier for many. Even Mere Agnes in her prison 
longed to see the bright face and hear the cheering words of 
this most human of contemporary great ladies. Going one 
day to the Convent of the Visitation, where Mere Agnes was 
kept a prisoner, and asking to see the saintly nun, Madame 

^ V. Cousin, Madame de Sable, p. 413. 

* " C'est ainsi que j'appelle les Princesses de Conti et de Longueville," 
confessed Madame de Sevigne in a letter dated 13th March 1671, and written 
to her daughter. 



244 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

de Sevigne was refused admission. Writing afterward to the 
Chevalier de Sevigne, Mere Agnes said : 

" I should have lost much of the fruit of my solitude if I 
had had the honour to see Madame de Sevigne, for one person 
like her takes the place of a whole company." ^ 

Madame de Sevigne must, therefore, be classed as one of the 
most illustrious of Port -Royal's worldly sympathizers. She 
confessed to her daughter that one of her greatest desires 
was to become a devote, but that, neither God's nor the Devil's, 
she belonged to the lukewarm, whom God hates.^ 

Yet M. Feuillet de Conches, in his Causeries d'un Curieux, 
tells us that in the Marquise's varied library the corner of 
honour was consecrated to books of devotion. 

" All Port-Royal shone there," he said. 

*' II ne vient de la que de parfait/'^ was Madame de Sevigne's 
own verdict respecting the literary side of Port-Royal, which 
interested her more than the religious one.* 

Her first visit to Port-Royal des Champs was made famous 
by the much-quoted eulogy of the monastery and its inhabit- 
ants. After spending six hours in the Desert with M. 
d'Andilly, she wrote on her return : 

" This Port-Royal is a Thebaide ; it is a paradise ; a 
desert where all the devotion of Christianity is concentrated ; 
there is a saintliness spread about in all the country for a 
league around . . . the nuns are angels on earth. . . . 

'' I assure you that I was ravished to see this divine solitude 
of which I have heard so much. It is a fearful valley quite 
adapted to inspire the taste to make one's salvation." ^ 

The person who brought Madame de Sevigne most nearly 
into personal contact with Port-Royal was her husband's uncle, 
the Chevalier de Sevigne. After his wife's death, and just 
before the persecutions began, this Knight of Malta, former 
aide-de-camp to Retz, and leader in the battle called *' The 
First of Corinthians," joined the Monastery in Paris as 
Sohtaire. On first going there, he retained his luxuries, 

1 Lettre du 9 Septembre 1664. ^ gee letter of loth June 1671. 

3 Vol. i. p. 87. 

* Lettre du 30 Sept. 1671. "Ah!" she exclaimed, " Je n'ai jamais 
vu ecrire comme ces Messieurs la." 

• Lettre du Janvier 1674. 



OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 245 

his silver plate, his carriage. Gradually, he gave these things 
up, donating every superfluity to the service of the monastery. 
We have a graphic picture of this gentleman of the old school 
during his daily promenades in the Garden of the Capuchins 
opposite Port-Royal. There, walking under a great parasol 
to protect him from the sun, he presented so comical a figure 
that the children of the quarter used to pursue him with 
hues and cries. Annoyed at this, the former soldier asked his 
Confessor if he might not have a domestic give them a few 
blows with a stick. 

At fifty-seven the Chevalier began to study Latin, learning 
enough to understand the prayers and offices of the Church, 
as well as some of the works of St. Augustine and St. Bernard, 
and occupying himself with transcribing the translations of 
De Saci. He loved the nuns of Port-Royal tenderly, and 
made them continual donations and presents. When they 
were sent away from Port-Royal de Paris, he too left, and on 
the Peace of the Church he retired to Port-Royal des Champs, 
where he helped to rebuild the cloister and enlarge the 
refectory. Although perfectly aware that outsiders were 
not allowed to go into the cloisters, he could not avoid letting 
Mere Agnes see his very natural desire to have a glimpse of 
the place he had been instrumental in erecting, so the latter 
in her own peculiar fashion was obliged to remind him of 
the strict rules of seclusion which prevented such a thing, 
concluding, 

" At our door there is a Cherubim, who defends the entrance 
with a sword of fire." ^ 

The Chevalier had therefore to content himself on those rare 
festivals when in procession behind the ecclesiastics he with 
the other friends was allowed to follow in the round, with 
only an occasional glimpse of the forbidden land. Still, the 
nuns greatly appreciated the sincere devotion and generosity 
of M. de Sevigne, and treasured this their true friend all the 
more tenderly in consideration of the numerous enemies who 
surrounded them. He was, in fact, the Chevalier d'Honneur of 
the Monastery. 

The most constant friend and associate of Madame de 
Longueville in her religious life was a certain Mile, de Vertus, 
1 Lettre du 15 Sept. i669» 



246 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

also a devote, and credited in concert with Madame de Sabl6 
with having accomplished the final link between Madame de 
Longueville and Port-Royal. Claiming kinship with no less 
a person than Anne of Brittany, her father being Claude de 
Bretagne, Comte de Vertus, Mile, de Vertus proudly signed her 
own name " Catherine de Bretagne." 

Frangoise Catherine de Vertus had the misfortune at the age 
of twenty — being one of a family of six daughters, of whom, after 
the famous Madame de Montbazon,shewas the most beautiful — 
on her father's death, to be neglected by a very galante mother,^ 
and forced to depend for her support on rich relatives. She 
therefore lived first in one great house, then in another, in the 
quahty of poor relation. She was fortunate in securing the 
friendship of Madame de Longueville, and after the latter' s 
conversion the Hotel de Longueville became her home, her 
material support being due thenceforth mainly to this friend, 
a pension granted her by Mazarin through the efforts of Madame 
de Montausier ^ being usually appropriated by unscrupulous 
agents before it reached her hands. Under these galling 
circumstances of poverty and dependence, calumny had not 
spared Mile, de Vertus. It had even linked her name with 
that of the Due de la Rochefoucauld as well as with the Prince 
de Conti. But, as Tallemant des Reaux praises her un- 
reservedly,^ it is reasonable to believe that these reports were 
all false. 

At the time of Madame de Longueville' s conversion, Mile, 
de Vertus had not yet entered Port-Royal, but as Singlin was 
her Director, it was she who managed the first interview 
between him and the new convert.* With the exception of 
Madame de Longueville, it was said that no one contributed 
more toward the bringing the negotiations for the Peace of the 
Church to a conclusion than Mile, de Vertus, after which she 
was at last able to retire definitely to Port-Royal des Champs. 
On doing so, however, the impaired state of her health would 
not permit her to become a nun. She had to content herself, 

1 Tallemant said : " Madame la Comtesse fut si ingrate que de ne lui 
rien donner" {Histoviettes , vi. p. 123). 

2 V, Cousin, Madame de SahU, p. 343. 

^ " EUe a du merite, elle salt le Latin . . . elle ecrit fort raisonnablement 
. . . mais I'affaire de M. de la Rochefoucauld I'a fort decriee " {Historiettes, 
vol. vi. p. 123). 

* Cousin, Madame de SabU, p. 367. 



OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 247 

therefore, with taking the habit of a novice, and practising severe 
austerities, coupled with the most complete humility. 

To the outside world. Mile, de Vertus seemed a model of 
virtue and attractiveness, and it was whispered that Madame 
de Longueville was sometimes jealous of her friend as more 
equable in temper and latterly more seductive than herself. ^ 
The character of the poorer noblewoman had reason to be more 
poised than that of the proud Princess, having been longer 
tried in the fire of adversity. She, however, vaguely alluded 
to tremendous sins in her youth, although she did not reveal 
their nature. On entering Port-Royal, she averred that she 
dared not hope for other suffering than her sins merited. ^ 

It was strange how this fragile being held on to life, while 
others of infinitely stronger physique passed out and left her 
behind. In spite of constant illness and suffering, she lived 
eighteen years at Port-Royal des Champs, outliving Madame 
de Longueville by thirteen. As some one aptly analysed 
it, she was one of those 

" Who are suspended a long time by an imperceptible thread 
between the danger of dying and that of living." ^ 

She feared both states, most of all death, and her Director, 
Du Guet, had to prepare her soul to meet this terror,* even as 
later on it was he who gave the last consolation to Madame de 
la Fayette. His advice to Mile, de Vertus was not a strictly 
Port-Royal one. 

"It is better," he said, ''to cede with a little confusion 
to your infirmity, than to combat it with vexation and without 
success." 

Mile, de Vertus has her own individual niche in the portrait 
gaUery of the Monastery, and her distinction can be estimated 
by the fact that Racine himself wrote her epitaph.^ 

One of the crosses of Madame de Longueville's new hfe 
was a certain Madame de Saint-Loup, said to be a miniature 

1 Necrologe. 2 Racine, Abrege (Gazier), p. 201. 

^ Sainte-Beuve, v. p. 119. 

* " Ah ! " he said, " you can suffer neither life nor death ! How do you 
wish me to treat you ? " {ibid.). 
^ Necrologe, p. 438. 



248 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Madame de Sable. This statement, however, seems a libel 
on the latter, who, although peculiar in the extreme 
was always aristocratic. Madame de Saint-Loup, on the 
contrary, was inclined to be vulgar. That she was not quite 
of Madame de Longueville's world, is proved by a letter 
from the latter to Madame de Sable, in which, after explaining 
that for a number of years she has been in the habit of 
" measuring " everything with Madame de Saint-Loup, the 
writer confesses that the lady is not among the number of 
those friends in whom she has unquestioning confidence. 

At Port-Royal, however, they could not afford to consider 
Madame de Saint-Loup's idiosyncrasies. She was active in 
inducing her friends of the other sex to make rich donations 
to the monastery, and she was on terms of Christian fellow- 
ship, not only with Du Guet, but with Arnauld, who lived at one 
time in her house. Nicole, too, was her friend, and took the 
liberty of admonishing her that the cause of our weakness is 
more in ourselves than in exterior things.^ 

Her Cure, commenting on the death of this lady at the 
advanced age of eighty, said : 

" She preserved to the end a lively faith, a firm hope in 
the mercy of God, a true spirit of penitence, a great love for 
truth, a generous declaration of her respect for the defenders 
she had had in our century." ^ 

One of St. Cyran's own first penitents among these " Ladies 
of Grace," as Sainte-Beuve called them, was a Madame de 
Saint- Ange, "one of the most beautiful souls of Port-Royal," and 
yet almost too tender and affectionate to be of the " pure 
race," the beauty of her soul being certainly more according 
to M. Hamon than St. Cyran. From the beginning, the latter 
had realized her weakness and tried to discipline her to 
stoicism, writing her from Vincennes : 

" Let us think of dying, Madame, while we are living in 
repose and health." 

Strange to say, Madame de Saint-Ange, who became a nun 

^ " J'ai toujours sujet d'en conclure que la cause de notre faiblesse est 
plus dans nous-memes .que dans les choses, exterieures, et que nous nous en 
grossissons I'ldee" (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 483). 

' Lettre de^M. Vuillarta M. de Prefontaine le 4 Dec. 1698. 



OTHER WORLDLY SYMPATHIZERS 249 

at Port-Royal under the name of Sister Anne-Eugenie de 
Boulogne, died just before the Peace of the Church in more 
tranquilUty of soul and less terror of death than Mere Angelique 
herself.^ 

The Grand Arnauld had many devoted friends among the 
Ladies of Grace. Apropos of the son of one of these, Madame 
de Fontpertuis, widow of M. Angran de Fontpertuis, Councillor 
of the Parliament of Metz, Saint-Simon tells a piquant story 
showing Louis xiv's dislike for any one tainted with a 
suspicion of Jansenism, and the obloquy attaching to 
Madame de Fontpertuis from being the friend of Arnauld. 
It seems that when in 1708 the Due d'Orleans was starting 
for the army of Spain, he named M. de Fontpertuis as one of 
his followers. 

" What ! my nephew ! " exclaimed the King, knitting his 
brows, ** the son of that Jansenist, that silly woman who used 
to run after M. Arnauld everywhere ! I don't want such a 
man with you." 

*' Ma foi. Sire," replied the Duke, " I don't know what 
the mother did, but as for the son, he is anything but a 
Jansenist, and I vouch to you for it — for he does not believe 
in God." 

"Then if that is so," said the King, "there is no harm 
done ; you may take him." ^ 

In gratitude " to that silly woman," who during his exile had 
run all dangers to go to him and minister to his needs, who had 
sweetened his life by her unselfish friendship, Arnauld in his 
will made Madame de Fontpertuis his universal legatee and the 
executor of his last wishes. ^ 

It was, of course, M. d'Andilly who had the most friends in 
the world outside the cloister, and of these none were more 
intimate or closer than a family whose country seat of Fresnes 
adjoined that of Pomponne — the Du Plessis Guenegauds. In 
Paris at the Hotel de Nevers, which had passed from Marie de 
Gonzague into the hands of the Du Plessis Guenegauds and 
become their town residence, was usually assembled a brilliant 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 318. 

2 Memoires (Hachette), vol. iv. p. 95. 

3 See Arnauld's Testament Temporel {Vie de Messire A. Arnauld, ii. p. 446). 
Among the things left to Madame de Fontpertuis were a painting of St. Charles 
by Champagne, and a large crucifix. 



250 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

company, not composed exclusively of Port-Royalists, but 
where one could be sure of hearing all the latest news of Port- 
Royal. The life of this gathering was the hostess, Madame 
du Plessis, as Madame de Sevigne called her, a lady of majestic 
mien and courtly manners, as well as of polished and cultured 
mind. It was Madame du Plessis Guenegaud who at the 
request of Port-Royal first induced the beaux esprits of Paris to 
value the Petites Lettres of Pascal.^ She had indeed so great 
a reputation for intellect, that on one occasion M.^de Pomponne 
naively asked Nicole if he thought his sister Mere Angelique 
de St. Jean, also known to be of keen brain, had as much mind 
as Madame du Plessis Guenegaud. Nicole merely shrugged 
his shoulders, evidently in contempt of his interlocutor. ^ 

All Port-Royal's mundane friends were ever ready to give 
material aid to the cause which called forth their enthusiasm. 
In times of peace they contributed toward the adornment, 
enlargement, or repair of the monasteries; in seasons of need 
drew generously upon their influence to advance the interests 
of the nuns and Solitaires. And, when exile and ignominy 
attacked Port-Royal, these same people threw open their homes 
to shelter the persecuted, defending them at the expense of re- 
putation and fortune. Nor at Port-Royal was friendship a mere 
word ; ^ it had there a meaning all its own, and was ever on the 
lips and in the heart of Mere Angelique, St. Cyran, and Singlin, 
whose conception of the obligations it involved was handed 
down from generation to generation. In life, the Port-Royalists 
gave these faithful ones spiritual direction, and, when Death 
came, set aside special prayers and|Masses to be said with full 
responses for the repose of their gentle souls, remembering 
and mourning them unceasingly. 

^ " Elle leur dit qu'ils avoient trop d'esprit pour ne pas sentir eux-memes 
les beautes de ces Lettres . . . que sans examiner si la doctrine de Port- 
Royal avait et6 condamnee a Rome ou non, il paraissait qu'elle etait pre- 
ferable a celle des Jesuites par la seule consideration de la morale" (Pere 
Rapin, M&moires, ii. p. 375). 

2 Racine, AbrSgS, p. 204. 

2 Le Maitre gives the Port-Royal ideal in his Portrait de I'Amitie Chritienne 
et Spirituelle as that of St. Chrysostom. Even Madame de Sable was infected 
with the contagion, and wrote her idea of true friendship as being based on 
reason and virtue. 



CHAPTER X 
THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 

" Grace a Dieu, je sais quant a moi 
Distinguer le fait de la foi, 
Le fait est une chose humaine, 
Bien souvent trompeuse, incertaine 
Mais la foi n'a rien de douteux 
Et r£j?lise et Rome sont deux." 



LORET 



ANEW aspect was put on the political affairs of Port-Royal 
by the resignation of Cardinal Retz. The absent 
Archbishop having at last^ been induced in consideration 
of a pecuniary indemnity to surrender his claim to the Arch- 
bishopric of Paris, the King appointed that fierce enemy of the 
Jansenists, De Marca, Bishop of Toulouse, to the vacant place. 
Of this man great things were expected by the enemies of Port- 
Royal, but, fortunately for the latter, M. de Marca died suddenly 
the very day that his papers arrived from Rome. Soon 
afterward the following ironical epitaph appeared : 

" Ci-git I'illustre De Marca, 
Que les plus grand des rois marqua, 
Comme prelat de son eglise : 
Mais la mort qui le remarqua, 
Et qui se plait a la surprise, 
Tout aussitot le demarqua." ^ 



^ In 1662. 

2 Rough translation : 

Here lies De Marca the renowned, 
Whom the greatest of kings had crowned, 
Of his Church the prelate wise : 
But Death whose eye him too had found. 
And who was fond of a surprise. 
Without delay had him uncrowned. 
251 



252 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

M. Hardouin de Beaumont de P^r^fixe, Bishop of Rhodez 
and former Preceptor of the King, was at once nominated in 
M. de Marca's place. Belonging to an ancient family of 
warriors, M. de Perefixe had, in spite of his profession, inherited 
a certain military character. He was very energetic, both in 
action and manner, his language being at once frank and 
brusque. In the fire of discussion, he even occasionally 
allowed an oath to escape him. There was no ambiguity used 
at Court over his nomination to the Archbishopric of Paris, for 
on receiving his papers the Queen Mother said to him : 

*' Recollect on what condition you obtained the Arch- 
bishopric. Now you are installed, look to it how you bear 
yourself." ^ 

The " condition " on which the appointment had been given 
M. de Perefixe was no less than the enforcement on the nuns 
of Port-Royal — the only ones of the religious orders who had 
refused — of the signature of the Formulary. But, a dispute 
arising between Louis xiv and the Pope, owing to an insult 
given a French Ambassador at Rome, two years elapsed 
before the nomination was officially confirmed by the Papal 
See. During these two years of respite, the nuns and Solitaires 
had time to draw up papers and regulate their plans for the 
future, well recognizing the fact that the storm was only^ 
averted, that sooner or later the sword of Damocles hanging 
over their heads would fall. Arnauld, from wherever he 
happened to be at the moment — and he found it necessary 
to change his place of retreat from time to time — was deep 
in negotiations for the termination of the troubles, aided by 
all the Jansenist circle : Madame de Longueville, Madame de 
Sable, Madame de Guemene, the Liancourts, the Ltiines, the 
Du Plessis Guenegauds. 

When at last M. de Perefixe received his Bulk, and entered 
legally into his new functions, his first step was to send a word 
of warning to the nuns, advising them not to stand out against 
the King's wish with regard to the Formulary. To Lancelot, 
who in the name of Port-Royal went to congratulate the new 
Archbishop on the arrival of his papers, he said in parting : 

"It is not proper that a simple convent of women ^ould 
wish to' make a law for others, and to seem either more just 
1 Histoire des Persecutions, p. 253.^ 



THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 253 

or more intelligent than the Pope, the Bishops, the Priests, and 
the Doctors." ..." Assure the nuns of Port -Royal," he 
added, *' that I esteem their virtue, and that I would give my 
blood to draw them out of this bad situation." ^ 

Seven days after the Archbishop had been confirmed by 
Rome, Port-Royal sustained an irreparable loss in the death 
of Singlin. Living hidden in the Faubourg St. Marceau, this 
last member of the First Port-Royal had finally been worn out 
at the early age of fifty-seven by his austerities and by grief. 

" The thing that pierced his heart was the kind of intestinal 
war between great servitors of God." ^ 

At the last, Singlin had been unpopular with the Solitaires, 
because of his willingness to sign the Formulary rather than 
bring trouble and persecution upon the nuns. Even Pascal 
had reproached him for this attitude, on the ground that not 
being a theologian he would only mix matters if he attempted 
to meddle. But the faithful Confessor had the welfare of the 
nuns too much at heart to be able to refrain from considering 
what they were to endure, and it broke his heart. 

Though forbidden during his lifetime to return to the 
monastery he loved so well, after death the embargo was 
removed, and at nine o'clock one night his body arrived at 
Port-Royal de Paris. With tears and lamentations the nuns 
buried him in the court, in the same tomb with that part of 
St. Cyran's remains which had been left to the Paris Church. 
His heart was sent to Port-Royal des Champs. And now it was 
discovered that Singlin's influence with the nuns was so great 
that the very remembrance of his belief with regard to the 
obnoxious Formulary decided some of them to sign.^ 

Singlin's successor at Port-Royal de Paris, M. de Sainte- 
Marthe, was* of a very different stamp, but soon after M. de 
Perefixe's accession he wrote the new Archbishop a letter of 

1 Ch. Gailly de Taurines, P^rc et Fille, p. 157. 

2 " Ce que lui percait le coeur, c'etait cette espdce de guerre intestine 
entre de grands serviteurs de Dieu " {Memoir e de Mile. Pdrier, Recueil de 
Plusieurs Pieces, p, 168). 

3 For Singlin's influence on both nuns and Solitaires, see Racine, Abreg^., 
p. 88. M^re Agnes's tribute was expressed in a letter to Madame de Foix 
(17th May 1664) • " His most precious relics are those of his spirit and the 
practice of instructions given us during twenty-eight years, throughout 
which he was our only Director, the Hght, the support, and the consolation 

< of our monastery, as "^e hope he will always be before God." 



254 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

a very conciliatory nature, couched in a humble appeal for 
the nuns : 

" Have pity, Monseigneur," it read, " on the tenderness 
of their consciences, and do not act with rigour." ^ 

Without delay the new Prelate issued his Mandement, in 
which, ordering his Deans and Priests to subscribe within a 
month to the Formulary, ignoring the distinction of fait and 
droit, which had occasioned so much trouble, he explained 
his standpoint to be that of a humane and ecclesiastical faith, 
zealous only to submit its judgment to that of its superiors. ^ 
At first thought, the Mandement seemed a victory to the 
Jansenists, who had before offered to sign the Formulary on 
a like basis — that is, one of respect and obedience to discipline. 
But alas ! the spirit of controversy was now too strong in the 
minds of this Second Port-Royal for them to recognize when 
it was wise to cede, so with stubborn recklessness they insisted 
on precise terms, thus again bringing persecution on their own 
heads, ignominy and captivity to their sisters the nuns. 

M. de Perefixe soon discovered the mettle of these 

" valets de pied de Farmee d'Achab," 

as Angelique de St. Jean d'Andilly called herself and her 
sisters. On his visit to Port-Royal de Paris to urge the nuns 
to sign the original Formulary, he had declared himself much 
pleased with all he saw and heard. ^ This frame of mind 
changed to that akin to horror when in his first interrogatory 
he found the kind of adversaries he had to combat in these 
quiet nuns. 

" But," he exclaimed to one of them, "• you are wiser than 
the Pope, the Church, and your Archbishop ! In the name of 
God, my sister, collect yourself, this is an insupportable 
pride. ... I find neither humility nor obedience in this 
house." 

In his next visit, the Archbishop was less gentle. Pere 
Annat * had spurred him on to definite action. On the nuns 
refusing to sign anything but the amended Formulary they 

^ Lettre du Juin i6e»2. 

2 Racine, AbregS, p. i68. 

3 He found nothing to find fault with in them but their refusal to sign the 
Formulary {ibid. p. 170). 

* " Who," says Racine, "did not cease to reproach him with his too 
great indulgence" {Abr^g^, p. 172). 



THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 255 

had before signed, calling the community together, he angrily 
announced that he would return and bring them to reason. 
In truth, he cried, you are 

" pures comme des anges, mais orgeuilleuses comme des 
demons." ^ 

Meeting Madame de Guemene as he stormed out of the court- 
yaird, the heated Prelate repeated this remark, and mounting 
into his carriage almost shook his finger at the defiant convent. 

About two weeks after this occurrence, a man hurriedly 
entering Madame de Longueville's drawing-room in the 
Carmelites was surprised to find there a large company of 
Jansenist friends and sjnupathizers assembled round the poet 
Moliere, who was reading aloud his Tartuffe. At the 
moment (1664) Moliere was at the height of his renown, and 
his newly written play Tartuffe the rage in Paris. The 
King believed it to be a satire on Port-Royal — indeed, one 
modern writer asserts that the poet wrote it on commission 
from Louis xiv to that effect. Many people pretended that 
Arnauld d'Andilly, the Duchesse de Longueville, and the 
Prince de Conti were all depicted in the various characters. 
No one knew, however, just what was meant, so the Jesuits 
laughed at it, believing it to be dkected against the Jansenists ; 
the Jansenists smiled quietly at each witticism it contained, 
thinking they recognized some particular trait of their enemies. 

On this occasion, Moliere's wit was suddenly interrupted, 
for the heated and excited messenger who had entered, going 
up to the hostess, said in a low tone : 

" What, Madame, you are hearing a comedy on the day 
when the mystery of iniquity is being accomplished and they 
are taking away nos meres ? " 

Horrified, Madame de Longueville at once dismissed her guests, 
and herself hastened to consult with her friends as to what 
steps could be taken to help these poor sisters. 

And indeed a terrible scene was just then taking place at 
Port-Royal de Paris. On hearing rumours of what was to 
happen, M. d'Andilly hurried to Port-Royal. M. de Perefixe, 
after an unavoidable delay caused by his own illness, had 
finally kept his promise, and that day appeared at Port-Royal 
with the Lieutenant Civil, the Provost, and a guard of two 

1 As pure as angels, but proud as demons " {Abr^gS, p. 172). 



256 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

hundred archers, who invested the house and court. He also 
brought several carriages with the intention of taking away all 
those nuns who had refused to sign the Formulary. When 
M. de Perefixe arrived at the gate of the monastery, the aged 
brother of Mere Angelique, throwing himself on his knees before 
him, begged mercy for the nuns. Very much moved, in spite 
of himself, M. de Perefixe, raising M. d'Andilly to his feet, 
and saying a few kind words, passed on to execute the work 
he had planned. 

Amid loud protestations — to which the irritated Archbishop 
rudely replied : 

" Je m'en moque " — ^ 

the twelve rebellious nuns were escorted to the outer door of 
the monastery, put into the carriages, and driven off, completely 
ignorant of the fate which awaited them. Faithful to the 
last, " Bonhomme d'Andilly " stood at the door as they came 
out. With firmness he conducted his sister Mere Agnes — 
now aged seventy-one, overwhelmed with infirmities, and 
having already had three strokes of apoplexy, hardly able to 
move — to the carriage, then his three daughters. Before 
bidding the latter good-bye, he took them into the church, 
and there at the altar again formally dedicated each to the 
Lord, whereupon, giving them his blessing, he allowed them 
to be driven away.^ 

It seemed a cruel turn of fate that in the crisis of their 
humiliation and persecution, the monastery called in to aid 
in the subjugation of Port-Royal should have been that of 
the Visitation, which Madame de Chantal, inspired by St. 
Fran9ois de Sales, had founded in 1611, with the design of 
revealing a religion based on tenderness and love.^ For Mere 
Angelique 's friendship with Madame de Chantal was one of 
the greatest of her hfe, and, during the twenty years it lasted, 
the Head of the Visitation made no visit to Paris that she did 
not pass several days with Mere Angelique, 

" pouring," says Racine, " her most secret thoughts into this 
friend's bosom, and desiring with ardour that the nuns of 

1 Fouillot, Mimoires snr la Destruction de Port-Royal. ^ Ibid. 

^ For reason for foundation of Visitation, see A. J. Hamon, Vie de St. 
FranQois de Sales, ii. p. 2. Madame de Chantal afterward put herself under 
the direction of St. Cyran, whom she called " The Saint," and this fact 
retarded her canonization by fifty years (Gazier, in Racine's AbregS). 



THE VISITS OF THE ARCHBISHOP 257 

the Visitation and those of Port -Royal should be always 
united by the same tie of friendship which had so closely 
bound their two mothers." ^ 

And this was the end of such wishes. The door had 
scarcely closed upon Mere Agnes and the other courageous 
non-signers than it was opened to admit the gaolers of those 
who remained : Mere Eugenie de Fontaine, Abbess of the 
Visitation, and five of her nuns, commanded to appear there by 
the Archbishop. La Mere Eugenie, who had received Madame 
de Chantal's sanction and blessing before the latter's death, 
was a much-revered person, considered a second Madame de 
Chantal. But a convert from Calvinism, she had gone to an 
extreme in her devotion to Church authority. Similarly, 
although also pious and virtuous, the nuns of the Visitation 
were of essentially different stamp from those of Port-Royal, 
being Ultramontane, and so obedient to papal supremacy as 
to assert that even if the Pope had condemned their saint 
and model, St. Fran9ois de Sales, they would condemn him 
also, and that 
" one must believe of the Bible only what the Pope said." ^ 

Thus, all the time that M. de Perefixe was extolling her before 
her new charges at Port-Royal de Paris, the Abbess of the 
Visitation remained prostrate at his feet, her head against the 
earth, her nuns following the example of their leader. Such 
humility before man was not that of Port-Royal, and this 
beginning of the new rule shocked the disciples of St. Cyran 
immeasiurably. With one voice they began to protest against 
being ruled over by Mere Eugenie, but to no avail. 

A little later, Port-Royal was honoured by a visit from 
Anne of Austria. As her Majesty mounted her carriage at the 
Louvre, and said to her servants : "To Port-Royal ! " her 
Chevalier d'Honnev./ exclaimed : 

" The Queen at Port -Royal ! Has she then become 
Jansenist ? " 

Smiling, the Queen replied : 

*' It is not they whom I am going to see, but la Mere 
Eugenie." 

As she was leaving, on the completion of her visit, one of the 

^ Abrigi, p. 8. 
- 2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 221. 

17 



258 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

old Port-Royal nuns threw herself at the Queen's feet, through 
her tears begging that the Sacraments of which they had been 
deprived should be restored to them. 
Anne of Austria replied haughtily : 

'' Obey ! What, nuns disobedient to their Archbishop ! 
That is horrible. Obey, and you will always find me disposed 
to do you service. Yes, obey, and I will serve you — other- 
wise " ^ 

And, stopping abruptly, she went away. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 213. 



CHAPTER XI 
CAPTIVITY 

" Ma mere," demanda avcc grande anxiete une des religieuses a la Mdre 
Agnes, " ma m^re, lorsque les bourreaux viendront nous prendre, pour nous 
mener au martyre, ne faudra-t-il pas mettre nos grands voiles ? " 

ON being sent away from Port-Royal, the twelve rebel 
nuns were distributed about in the various convents of 
Paris, where, under close supervision, some were treated 
well, others badly. Mere Agnes, attended by two of her nieces. 
Sisters Angelique de Sainte-Therese and Marie de Sainte- 
Claire, was taken to the Convent of the Visitation in the Rue 
St. Jacques. From the first, the idea of Mere Angelique's 
sister had been to sign the Formulary " en-tete " — that is, 
to append to the signature a statement that the submission 
was in the matter of faith alone, other points being reserved.^ 

In his introduction to a collection of the Letters of Mere 
Agnes, M. Faugere analyzed her as a person of great mind 
rather than of lofty character, and he defined her piety as 
" tender, affectionate, attractive, and of an extreme and 
many-hued delicacy." By these peculiarities. Mere Agnes 
showed herself true sister of Robert d'Andilly. Both were 
impassioned and quick ; but while Robert was romantic, 
Agnes was mystical in the Spanish sense of the word. Mere 
Angelique and her youngest brother, the Great Arnauld, 
on the other hand, were calmer and better poised, turning more 
toward the Roman spirit of dignified intellectuality. ^ Those 

1 By his invention of the subtle distinction of fact and doctrine, which 
allowed the nuns to sign the Formulary, it was Nicole who really brought 
final ruin upon Port-Royal. The essence of his compromise was : " We 
condemn the Five Propositions said to be extracted from Jansenius, but we 
deny that they are there. Let them be shown us." 

' Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, i. p. 88. 

«59 



26o THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

who felt oppressed by the grandeur of Angelique had no fear 
of the softer spirit in Agnes.^ The Marquise d'Aumont, who 
afterwards helped M. Le Maitre to collect documents on the 
life of Mhre Angelique, said to the great Solitaire one day : 

" I assure you. Monsieur, I get on better with Mere Agnes, 
notre mere is too severe for me." ^ 

In response to a similar remark made by Madame de 
Saint-Ange, whom Mere Angelique had received very coldly 
on her first visit to Port-Royal, Madame d'Andilly replied : 

*' Mere Angelique resembles the good angels, who first 
affright, and afterward console.'* 

And now throughout her captivity the demeanour of Mere 
Agnes was characterized by the individual sweetness peculiar 
to her. She suffered, prayed, and was desirous of anything 
that would lead to a reunion. She had no idea of signing 
herself, but she made no opposition to the action of others, 
leaving even her nieces free to do as they thought best. After- 
ward she blamed herself somewhat for this indifference, and 
expressed her repentance before the community.^ Finally, 
influenced by the great Bossuet, the eldest niece, Angelique 
de Sainte-Therese, was induced to sign, and when a short time 
afterward Marie de Sainte-Claire Andilly also succumbed to 
the pressure brought to bear on the captive nuns, Port-Royal 
was agitated by a natural fear lest Mere Agnes herself be on the 
point of surrender : 

" If these things happen to the green faith, what will 
become of the dry wood ? " 

they said, forgetting for a moment that one who like 
Mere Agnes had been brought up under the shadow of the 
Great Angelique could not swerve from so plain an ideal. 
Christine Briquet, herself one of the steadfast sisters, had no 
such fear for Mere Agnes : 

" I cannot easily believe that the stars have fallen from the 
sky," she said.* 

1 In the early days, Mere Angelique herself noticed this lenient quahty in 
Agnds, and called it her " imperfection," recognizing it as the thing which 
impelled her to work -with an ardour beyond her force, and to practise fasting, 
to be very regular at the offices {M^moires et Relations, p. 29). 

2 Ibid., p. 229. 

3 Lettre du 24 Juin 1665. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 277. 



CAPTIVITY 261 

And it is on the whole a continuous history of courage and 
steadfastness that we read in the Relations written by the 
various nuns sent into captivity. Of all these marvellous 
tales, the best is that of M. d'Andilly's eldest daughter, Mere 
Angelique de St. Jean, whose experience of imprisonment 
in the Convent of the Annonciades, or Filles Bleues, was a 
most interesting and singular one. Her account, which is full of 
both real emotion and pathos, was not published until after 
its writer's death, in spite of the firm determination of Antoine 
Arnauld to make it public, for Angelique de St. Jean herself 
steadily refused to consent to such a thing. ^ From the age of 
six, the eldest daughter of M. d'Andilly had lived at Port- 
Royal, and as a child was considered almost too clever for 
her own good. Nevertheless a true Arnauld, in her the spirit 
of the Great Angelique seemed to have been re-incarnated. 
Through her uncle, Antoine Le Maitre, she was induced to 
collect material for a biography of Mere Angelique, and at the 
time of her imprisonment she had been engaged for twelve 
years in writing down the smallest details she could find of 
her aunt. Forty years of age at this period, her character 
had become so formed and rounded that the encomium 
passed upon her was that she had 1 

" a soul very sad, tender, capable of all the beautiful agonies/* 

The Superior of the Convent of the Filles Bleues, in which 
Angelique de St. Jean was incarcerated, was the widow of the 
Marechal Rantzau, a warrior so badly treated by the god of 
war as to have had finally nothing left whole " save his heart." 
Madame de Rantzau herself was a convert from Lutheranism, 
supposed to be very learned, and to have made many con- 
versions among the Lutherans. In putting Angelique de St. 
Jean with this strong German, M. de Perefixe said to the 
other sisters : 

" Esprit avec esprit, science avec science ; cela s'accom- 
modera bien." 

Madame de Rantzau tried to convert her prisoner, and in the 
first long hours of her captivity Angelique de St. Jean, who 
was endowed with a quick imagination, went through every 

1 After her death, the work, in three volumes of Memoirs, was pubUshed 
at Utrecht. 



262 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

stage of despair, being even assailed by the most terrible 
enemy of all — doubt. Her encounters with Madame de 
Rantzau furnish the sole comic side of the picture of this sad 
time, for, notwithstanding the *' science " with which M. de 
Perefixe credited the Superior of the Filles Bleues, Angelique 
was not long in discovering that her gaoler's knowledge w£ls 
not profound, and wickedly delighted in putting the pompous 
lady in a corner, Madame de Rantzau' s invariable assertion 
when thus lured into a theological trap being : 

" I know all ecclesiastical history. I know everything, I 
will answer everything." 

Turning her back, and going to the window to pray, Angelique 
would thereupon say humbly, but ironically : 

" And I, Madame, I know nothing." ^ 

Meanwhile, the nuns left behind at Port-Royal de Paris 
suffered in their own convent practically as great a confinement 
as their twelve exiled sisters. In the midst of these pure 
angels of Port-Royal, la Mere Eugenie was rather to be pitied. 
Hers was a difficult position. It was her duty to persuade 
the prisoners to sign the Formulary, but their repugnance to 
signing the declaration as to matters of which they were in 
reality absolutely ignorant, and^ their anguish at the quandary 
in which they were placed, was extreme. Through their 
simple religion, they had not only horror of a lie, but of 
any subterfuge whatever. They had never even read the 
Augustinus, so how could they swear that the abominable 
Five Propositions were contained therein? 

In describing the captivity and persecution of the nuns 
of Port-Royal, Racine remarked : . ; 

" God sustained and conducted these admirable virgins." 

Where, then, were the Solitaires who should have given 

1 Relation de la CaptiviU de la Mire Angdique de St. Jean, p. 38- 
During the latter part of her imprisonment, this talented daughter of 
Robert d'Andilly was induced to fashion a quantity of figures in wax for the 
sisters of the convent. Seeing the cleverness of her prisoner, Madame de 
Rantzau exclaimed : " Your mind is made Uke your fingers, and as you 
find all sorts of inventions for accompUshing the work you do, your mind 
furnishes you also with reasons for fortifying yourself in everything." 



CAPTIVITY 263 

material aid to their spiritual sisters ? Again it is Racine who 
answers : 

" The great men who might have been able to enlighten 
and encourage them were themselves obliged to hide in order to 
avoid the violence which one wished to exercise against them." ^ 

Lancelot attributes the firmness of the reltgieuses to a fear of 
wounding sincerity — they could not bear to think of an 
obscurity in signing. It was love of Truth which actuated 
and upheld them. For in both the trusting nuns and in his 
disciples, St. Cyran had implanted his own indomitable belief 
that " the least truth of Faith should be defended with as 
much fidelity as Jesus Christ." In her turn, Mere Angelique 
rallied her nuns on the fact that God judged them worthy to 
suffer for Truth and Justice ! 

All Paris finally became interested in the signers and non- 
signers, for treachery had crept in among the captives, both 
within and without, and at last about twelve sisters inside, and 
five among the exiles, gave up the struggle and signed away 
their faith. But in spite of these conquests, the supervision 
over both the nuns outside and in Port-Royal de Paris began 
to seem very purposeless and unsatisfactory, as weU as ex- 
pensive to the authorities. 

In November of the same year in which he had visited 
Port-Royal de Paris, M. de Perefixe made a similar visit to 
the Champs, and with a like result. Remaining two days, 
he left it too in anger, presenting the monastery with formal 
excommunication as a token. Twelve days afterward he sent 
an order to expel Confessors and Sacristan. M. Hamon, who 
was still on the premises, escaped arrest only by a clever 
retreat through the gardens. After much consultation, it was 
eventually decided to reunite the rebels at Port-Royal des 
Champs, there to keep all in regular guarded sequestration 
until they ceded to the Formulary. 

The return of Mere Agnes and the twelve Paris rebel nuns 
was a great but mournful pleasure. Gathered up one by one 
from the various monasteries in which they had been kept 
the long ten months, they hardly dared express their joy at 
meeting, nor did the occupants of one carriage know definitely 
which of their companions were in the swiftly rolling vehicles 

^ Abrege, p. 192. 



264 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

following or preceding them. When they arrived at Port 
Royal des Champs, it seemed like a desolate and deserted 
place, and only two servants came out to the gates to bid 
them welcome or help them to alight. There was no ringing 
of bells, no bonfires of joy, no Solitaires drawn up in solemn 
array. What a contrast to the reception of Mere Angelique 
seventeen years before ! But in a moment the church was 
filled with nuns, the service intoned, and afterward, going to 
the Porte des Sacrements, the Prioress, Madame du Fargis, 
calling all the community together, in the absence of the 
Abbess,^ formally welcomed the new arrivals. Embracing 
their sisters in tenderness and gladness, the captives, a 
moment afterwards recollecting themselves, formally pro- 
tested — as they considered their duty — to the Grand Vicar, 
who accompanied them, against the indignities they had 
received. 

Thus, on the 2nd July 1665, Port-Royal des Champs again 
became revivified, filled with seventy-three nuns, not counting 
the working sisters. And now assembled in their old home, 
deprived of the Sacraments, they were treated like prisoners 
of war. Soldiers patrolled the place, and watched everything 
within the house itself. Only the working sisters were allowed 
to go to the Holy Eucharist, and it was rumoured that in 
order to approach the Holy Communion, Mere Agnes did not 
hesitate to disguise herself in the garb of a converse. 

The consolation of the nuns at this time was, strangely 
enough, the eccentric doctor-Solitaire, Jean Hamon. After 
much solicitation, M. Hamon had been allowed by the 
authorities to return to the Champs on the condition that in 
his ministrations to the nuns he would always be accompanied 
by the warder. This was not the only indignity paid him : 
the soldiers at the walls scoffed at the shabby-looking man, who, 
winter and summer, appeared before them clothed in an old 
black cloak ; and in derision, refusing to dignify him by the title 
of Monsieur, they addressed him as Monseigneur, mon maitre, or 
mon ami. At night, too, by order of the authorities, he was 
locked up in his room. Yet for the sake of his sisters in 
captivity, this great man endured cheerfully every hardship 
and slight, his reward being the knowledge that in these years 
of captivity he was their consolation and help, in every dark 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iv. p. 283. 



CAPTIVITY 265 

hour which came to the nuns rendering them uninterruptedly 
the pious offices of priest, confessor, and doctor. 

The romantic adventure during this period was accom- 
plished by M. de Sainte-Marthe, who during the winter nights 
used often to leave Paris or Gif near by, and travel to Port- 
Royal des Champs, where, as agreed upon secretly with the 
nuns, he would at a specified place under the walls hold dis- 
courses to console and fortify the captives. Sometimes he 
would bring the last Sacrament to a dying person, Racine 
testifying that by his efforts not one person died without the 
last unction. 1 

For nearly four years this captivity continued, but finally 
the bravery of the outside Jansenist world accomplished the 
result for which they had so long been working, and, chiefly 
through the exertions and influence of the Duchesse de 
Longueville, the Peace of the Church was at last realized. 

1 According to Nicole, M. de Sainte-Marthe was the saintUest man whom 
he had seen at Port-Royal (Racine, AbrSgS, p. 203). M^re Angelique, on the 
contrary, never admired liim. His greatest eulogy is the unspoken testimony 
given by Pascal, who selected him from among all the Confessors at Port- 
Royal, and, sending for him in his last hours, confided to him the most 
secret thoughts of his soul. The Nicrologe speaks of his impatience of any- 
thing false, his love of the truth, his laments, his silence, his withdrawal into 
obscurity, and there his gradual wasting away. 



PART IV 

PORT-ROYAL DECADENT 

1669-1712 



267 



CHAPTER I 

THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH— DEATH OF 
MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE 

" Merveilleuse beaute, race de tant de rois, Princesse, dont I'elat fait honte 
aux immortelles." Desmarets 

FOR five long years ^ (1664 to 1669) Antoine Amauld and 
Nicole had lived hidden in the Hotel de LongueviQe. 
Accustonied to the fine gallants of the Hotel Rambouillet, 
the five or six hours a day Madanie de Longneville spent in the 
company of these gentlemen, who for all their saintliness 
were not quite delicate in their manners, was often less a 
pleasure than a trial of her piety — especially when Doctor 
Arnauld so far forgot the usages of good society as to take 
off his braces in her drawing-room, or when the absent-minded 
scholar Nicole quietly deposited his hat, gloves, cane, and muff 
on her bed. Sincere indeed was the humility which silently 
endured such tests. 

Being the most polished of the two, Nicole was Madame 
de Longueville's favourite, and in disputes she usually sided 
with him, addressing him in her turn with old-fashioned 
courtesy as " M. I'Abbe." ^ 

During this season of enforced retreat and solitude, the 
Messieurs were also busy with Hterary work. Thinking that 
the pubhcation of the result of one of their labours, the " New 
Testament of Mons," as it was called,^ might aid their cause, 

1 Racine, AhrSgi, p. 201. 

2 When she died, therefore, Nicole lamented that with her he was deprived 
of much consideration : "I have even lost my abbey," he said, " for now 
no one calls me M. I'Abbe Nicole, but just plain Nicole " {ibid.). 

3 This translation of the New Testament was made, according to Mdre 
Angelique de St. Jean, by Le Maitre, who had " dug the foundations " ; De 
Saci, who had "elevated the whole edifice"; and by Arnauld, who had 

269 



270 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

conferences were held on the subject at the Hotel de Longueville. 
It was on coming away from one of these, 12th May 1666, with 
the preface of the new work under his arm, that M. de Saci, 
with his friend and secretary Nicolas Fontaine, was seized and 
thrust into the Bastille, there to remain for over three years. 
Always in anticipation of arrest, M. de Saci's greatest regret 
on this occasion seems to have been that for the first time 
in two years he had not in his pocket a little volume of St. 
Paul, which in provision for just such an accident he had had 
bound specially. 

The greatest obstacle to any conciliation of factions inside 
the Church was the saintly M. Pavilion, Bishop of Aleth, 
who had converted the Prince de Conti — a priest of such 
renown that even in his lifetime pilgrimages were undertaken 
to Aleth solely to see him and hear his words. This great 
reformer of a very degenerate diocese at the foot of the Pyrenees 
had not come into the fold of Port-Royal until the beginning of 
persecution, when after a long study he declared that his 
conscience would not allow him to sign the Formulary con- 
demning the Five Propositions. ^ From this time, a corre- 
spondence had begun between Pavilion and Arnauld, he in 
company with three other bishops — those of Angers, Beauvais, 
and Pamiers — sustained the cause of Port-Royal, refusing to 
sign the Formulary. Finally, after many negotiations, M. 
PaviUon, the most obstinate of the four, was won over to 
subscription of the Formulary with a '' but " attached to it, 
and once his consent was gained, the other three Bishops 
were easily induced to follow his example on the same 
grounds : i.e. with a declaration to the effect that they did 
not comprehend the Five Propositions in the sense in which 
they were condemned. 

This submission sealed the so-called " Peace of the Church." 
Even Pere Annat had to succumb, allowing himself only a 

" put on the finishing touch " (Lettre a Arnauld, 1668). Appearing in 1667, 
it is said to have materially contributed to the Peace of the Church. 

1 In gratitude for his loyalty to them, in 1666 the nuns of Port-Royal 
sent the Bishop of Aleth an embroidered girdle on which all the community, 
even Mere Agn^s, had worked. On his part, M. Pavilion greatly admired 
the courageous nuns, and of the Messieurs he said : " We knew nothing 
before we knew the Messieurs of Port-Royal : and we cannot praise God 
enough for having allowed us to know them " (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal^ 
iv. p. 44), 



THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 271 

last criticism of the Papal Nuncio who had aided greatly in the 
conclusion of the affair : 

" You have ruined by the weakness of a quarter of an hour 
the work of twenty years," he said.^ 

Receiving Antoine Arnauld in audience, the King remarked 
that he was glad to see a man of his merit, and that he hoped 
the learned Doctor would henceforth employ his talents in 
the defence of the true religion. ^ On the same day the 
Champion of Jansenism went to St. Jacques du Haut Pas to 
hear Mass. Here he found the bells ringing, the candles 
illuminated on the altar, and the Cur^ of the church waiting 
to receive him quite as if he were an archbishop. De Saci, too, 
released from the Bastille, after his imprisonment of over 
two years, was presented in due course to his Sovereign. On 
seeing the priest of whom he had heard so much, Louis xiv, 
turning to M. de Pomponne, said : 

" Well, now you are satisfied ! " ^ 

In the midst of these honours, the emancipated Jansenists 
did not forget to place the credit where it was due. To Madame 
de Longueville belonged the true glory ; it was she who was 
the leading spirit in the arrangement which led to anotheir 
and most important respite in the persecution of Port-Royal. 
To Clement ix she cleverly represented the Jansenists to be : 

*' Le plus grand et le plus petit parti du monde, le plus fort 
et le plus faible," * 

demonstrating that through their humility they were at once 
great and small, strong and weak, but at the same time remind- 
ing him that to the faith of the persecuted belonged some of the 
most influential people in the land. Thus, as Sainte-Beuve says : 

" She contributed as much as any prelate to the Peace of 
the Church," ^ 

a truce which not only brought quiet to the persecuted 
Jansenists, but secured tranquillity to them throughout the 
ten years which preceded the death of their benefactress. 

1 Gerberon, Histoire du Jans&nisme, vol. iii. p. 259. 

2 Ibid, vol. i. p. 363. 

3 Fuzet, Les Jansinistes du XV I J Steele, p. 398. 
* Lettre du 25 Juillet 1667. 

^ Port-Royal, iv. p. 366, 



272 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

And, after every event which concerned them in their 
new prosperity, it was to the Hotel de Longueville that the 
rejoicing circle repaired to talk over their good fortune and 
to thank her who had occasioned it all.^ So happy were they 
over this great event that they wished to consecrate the date 
by a monument of some kind. They therefore had a large 
medal struck off at the Mint. On one side was the face and 
name of the King ; on the other, an altar on which lay an open 
book ; on the book the keys of St. Peter, the royal sceptre 
and Hand of Justice, above which was represented the radiant 
image of the Holy Spirit, with these words : 

" Gratia et Pax a Deo." 

The whole was interpreted as follows : The book lying on the 
altar was the Augustinus of Jansenius closed by Alexander vii 
and opened by Clement ix. The keys of St. Peter lying with 
the royal insignia, meant the equality of the royal and papal 
powers. The word " Gratia " recalled the doctrine of Grace, 
and " Pax " signified that reconciliation was the price of 
victory, not of obedience and submission. 

Although Louis xiv looked askance at the medal, it 
remained. As, however, he sent word to Madame de Longue- 
ville that it displeased him to have her entertain the Jansenists 
in her house, she went to St. Germain and asked if she might 
not be allowed to hold assemblies of gens de Men like Bossuet 
and Madame de Miramion. The King replied : 

" No assemblies, Madame, if you please, I beg of you.*' 

Notwithstanding this interdiction, the cousin of the King 
courageously continued to lodge the Port-Royalists in her 
house, making no concession but that of greater discretion. ^ 
Three years after the Peace of the Church, Madame de 

1 Fontaine paid the following tribute to Madame de Longueville, after the 
Peace of the Church was consummated, in the form of a prayer to God: 
" Reward, Oh God, Thy servant a hundredfold for what she has done for 
Thy glory, for the interest of Thy church, and for Thy very humble servitois. 
. . . Thou hast doubtless written the reward of this princess in heaven. . . . 
She suffered peaceably the opprobrium of the proud : she knew what was 
said of her in contempt, and that they did not blush to call her the shame 
and ignominy of the royal family. Thou shalt make it to be seen. Lord, 
that she was its ornament, and St. Louis has surely not blushed for her in the 
Heavens " (Menioires). 

2 Fuzet, Les Jans^nistes du XVII Siicle, p. 39S. 



I 



THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 273 

Longueville adding a corps of buildings to the Abbey of Port- 
Royal des Champs, from which a covered gallery led to a 
tribune in the church, divided her time between Port-Royal 
des Champs and the Carmelites. At Port-Royal she redoubled 
her austerities, and it became her custom to isolate herself 
for weeks at a time in the damp^and desolate " desert.'* Thus 
it was at Port-Royal that the greatest sorrow of her life came 
to her, for she was there when news of the death of her 
youngest son, the Comte de Saint-Paul, reached her. She had 
but two boys, and of these the eldest, the Comte de Dunois, 
had from his birth been a continual trial and tribulation. 
The details of his career are not known precisely, but history 
relates that one day, leaving his titles and rights to his 
younger brother, he fled from his mother's house to go to 
Rome, there to take Holy Orders. ^ 

The second son, born at the Hotel de Ville, and called 
Charles de Paris by the Aldermen of the City, who stood 
sponsors at his baptism, on the contrary, was the pride of his 
mother's heart, the joy of her life, very fruit of the Fronde. 
He, on his part, was not a particularly dutiful or thoughtful 
son, though eulogized by Madame de Sevigne as lacking only 

" a little pride, vanity, and haughtiness.'* 2 

When in 1672, owing to the wrong understanding of an order 
given by his uncle and chief, the Grand Cond^, the Comte 
de Paris (then Due de Longueville) was killed during the 
famous Passage of the Rhine,^ Madame de Longueville's 
unique consolation must have been that, only a short time 
before leaving for the army, he had become converted by Ces 

1 The Due de Longueville had interested himself particularly in the educa- 
tion of his eldest son, who was almost an idiot, and given him a Jesuit tutor. 
After his father's death, at the age of seventeen (his brother was three years 
younger) he came to live with his mother in Paris. He was nineteen when 
he fled to Rome. There he took the name of the Abbe d' Orleans, and in 1669 
was ordained priest. 

2 Letter of the 3rd July 1672. 

3 Madame de Sevigne had most touchingly described Madame de Longue- 
ville's reception of the news of her son's death brought her by Mile, de Vertus : 
" Ah ! mon cher fils ! Est-il niort sur le champ ? N'a-t-il pas eu un seul 
moment ? Ah ! mon Dieu, quel sacrifice I Et la-dessys elle tombe sur son 
lit, et tout ce que la plus vive douleur put faire, et par des convulsions, et 
par des evanouissements, et par un silence mortel, et par des cris 6toufE6s, 
et par des larmes amdres, et par des elans vers le ciel, et par des plaiates 
tendres et pitoyables, elle a tout eprouve" (20th June 1672). 

18 



274 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Messieurs, and had begun a spiritual life, the Port-Royalists 
thereafter considering him a saint. 

The son's death sounded in reality his mother's death-knell, 
but for seven weary years existence dragged on for her, and 
was made endurable by good works and pious exercises, the 
interest of seeing a crowd of penitents — among whom was 
Louise de la Valliere — pass through these her two religious 
retreats. At last,^ the end came, at the Carmelites, on the 15th 
April 1679. The funeral eulogy was not delivered until a year 
afterwards, then, strangely enough, only a few days after the 
death of M. de la Rochefoucauld. Instead of the great Bossuet, 
it was preached by the Abbe de la Roquette, formerly in the 
Conde household, and become Bishop of Autun, an ecclesiastic 
supposed to have been the original of Mo)iere's Tartuffe. This 
sermon was not allowed to be printed, so we learn its epitome 
again through Madame de Sevigne, who comments thus on the 
Bishop of Autun and his task : 

" He was a prelate of consequence," she wrote, " preaching 
with dignity, and going through the Princess's life with incred- 
ible address, passing the delicate points, saying or not saying 
what should be said or not said." ^ 

Momrning Madame de LongueviUe, the Queen of Devotes, 
and a benefactor who had secured them the boon of peace, 
Port-Royal at least forgot the mistakes of Madame de 
Longueville's youth. And if their benedictions, and those of 
the multitude to whom she made restitution for the misery 
she had caused during the Fronde, could have wiped out her 
sins, she must now certainly occupy a high place in that 
heaven of which Jansenius and St. Cyran dreamed, and in 
which they awaited souls over whom they had watched in 
their earthly days. 

And though Madame de LongueviUe is remembered in 
French history chiefly for that unsurpassable beauty and 
charm which attracted to her such men as the Great Conde, 
La Rochefoucauld, and the serious scholars of Port-Royal, her 
value from an ethical and social point of view has been most 
aptly summed up as the crown of humility. ^ An unknown 

1 Her age was fifty-nine years and seven months. 

2 Lettre du 12 Avril 1680. 

3 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 133. : , 




LA DUC HESSE DE LONGUEVILLE 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY WALTENER 



THE PEACE OF THE CHURCH 275 

Jansenist author — suspected to be Nicole — in a MS. discovered 
by Sainte-Beuve at the Bibhotheque Nationale, giving a 
summary of her character, attributed to her quahties equally 
to be esteemed from a religious or from a worldly standpoint. 
He dwells upon the fact that she herself never said ill of a 
person, and that to hear evil spoken gave her pain. Observ- 
ing her humility, her lack of affectation, her power of listening 
attentively, he concluded his eulogy by the statement that 
everything about her — voice, face, gestures — made a perfect 
music, while both her physical being and her mind served so 
well in the expression of what she desired to say, that she was 

" the most finished actress in the world." ^ 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 1 35. To his sister, the Duchesse d'Epernon 
M. de Pontchateau wrote apropos of Madame de Longueville : " II y avait 
des faiblesses : qui n'en a point ? EUe les voyoit et en gemissoit ; c'est 
presque tout ce que Dieu demande de nous" (Lettre du 22 Avril 1679). 



CH^APTER II 

RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION WITH 
PORT-ROYAL 

" O repos ! O tranquillite ! 
O d'un parfait bonheur assurance etemelle, 

Quand la supreme autorite 
Dans ses conseils a toujours aupr^s d'elle 
La justice et la verite," 

Athalie 

THE newest and most sensational work on Racine, written 
by his great-great-nephew, M. Masson Forestier,i en- 
deavours to prove that^the foremost French tragic poet 
never belonged to Port-Royal at all. Having carefully perused 
M. Masson Forestier's long pages, however, it is^difficult to find 
any convincing proof of what the author^ has so minutely 
tried to demonstrate, and in re-telling the simple facts of his 
history we gladly leave it to our readers to estimate for them- 
selves the effect of Port-Royal on the poet, as well as Racine's 
own sincerity in his conversion and subsequent life. 

In the pages of one of the Necrologes of Port-Royal he is 
classified : 

*' M. Racine, poete. Solitaire of Port -Royal, author of 
Esther, Athalie, of the Cantiques Spiritueh, and of the Abrege 
de I'Histoire de Port-Royal." ^ 

That they ignored his profane plays, and a certain period of 
his life, does not make him any less one of their number. 

1 Autour d'un Racine ignori, Paris, Mercure de France, 1910. 

2 L. Bredif, Racine et Port-Royal (Melanges). The Nicrologe and SupplS- 
ment each give Racine a notice, each speak of his profane dramatic works, 
and also of his period of worldly dissipation. The above-quoted comes from 
another N^rologe of the Friends of Port-Royal. 

376 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 277 

Forced to leave Port-Royal des Champs on the final destruc- 
tion of the Petites ficoles, Racine had apparently quickly lost 
its influence. We are told that at the College de Harcourt, 
where he was sent to study philosophy, he soon fell into 
irreligious ways. Hearing of this, his solicitous and pious 
family conceived the plan of putting him with his uncle 
Sconin, a Canon at Usez, who, possessor of many fat benefices, 
had promised to endow his nephew with them. On his arrival 
at Usez, his uncle accordingly at once dressed the nineteen- 
year-old Racine in a complete suit of black, and was about to 
have him tonsured, when the young aspirant himself, already 
weary of the forced hypocrisy and sycophancy he met with 
in the provinces, renounced the religious life, together with his 
uncle's proposed ecclesiastical honours, and retiurned to Paris, 
carrying with him the beginning of his first tragedy, The 
Thehaide, on les Freres ennemis. 

When he returned, his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, 
having died at Port-Royal, leaving as only remaining relative in 
authority, his aunt Agnes de St. Thecle Racine, a nun at Port- 
Royal, Racine found himself comparatively free and master 
of his own destiny. He at once began his career by a trial 
of the poetic gift, the possession of which had been denied him 
by both Le Maitre and De Saci.^ 

His cousin Vitart took his first effort, an ode to Louis xiv 
on his marriage, called " La Nymphe de la Seine," to Chapelain, 
who found it very fine and very poetic, in spite of the detail of 
the Seine being peopled with Tritons instead of nymphs — 
a grave mistake in the eyes of the conservative old poet. 
Perrault confirmed Chapelain's dictum, and soon Colbert, 
Intendant of Finance, presented the author with a purse of one 
hundred louis. According to pious ideas, this success was 
Racine's ruin, for it settled his taste in literature, and caused 
him to give rein to his ruling passion — that of writing for the 
stage. 

Among his first friends at this period were Moliere and 
La Fontaine. A second ode, called " La Renommee aux 



^ M. de Saci, it would seem, was rather jealous of Racine, and finding his 
verses unlike his own, represented to the young poet that poetry was not 
his talent. M. Le Maitre, on his part, wishing to make an advocate of his 
clever pupil, also discouraged the writing of verse (Sainte-Beuve, Port- 
Royal, vi. p. 93), 



278 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Muses," written soon after " La Nymphe de la Seine," brought 
him not only the protection of the Comte de St. Agnan and 
entrance to the Court, but — more valuable still — a third 
friendship, that of Nicolas Boileau, called Despreaux, con- 
sidered by some of the most eminent critics to have written 
the finest verses in the French language.^ At first the four led 
a frivolous existence. With four or five other associates of 
more notoriety for their adherence to Bacchus than literary 
reputation, they used to foregather either at one of the three 
celebrated inns of the day, " Le Mouton Blanc," " Pomme de 
Pin," and " Croix de Lorraine," or at Boileau's lodgings at 
Auteuil. On these occasions, it was Boileau's influence alone 
which kept Racine from giving himself up entirely to the 
wildest dissipation. Indeed, Boileau was destined to have a 
tremendous and most salubrious effect on Racine's history. 
Only three years older than his new friend, Boileau was also 
of a satiric, light-hearted vein, and indissolubly linked with 
both Moliere and La Fontaine, especially the former, whom 
he particularly admired. ^ 

Moliere was by this time well settled in his career, a man 
of forty, and eighteen years older than Racine. His influence 
had the effect, says M. Jules Lemaitre in his Jean Racine,^ 
of dissipating any disposition the young Hellenist may have 
had toward the precieux or sentimental side of literature. The 
brusque realism of Moliere took him away from the flowers, 
the dew, the shadows, and the fountains, and inspired in him 
nothing less than a love of the true and the natural. From 
Moliere, too, he gained an idea of the tragedy of life, for, though 
an inimitable companion at times, the great actor-manager, 
always unhappy and unfortunate in his domestic surround- 
ings, was more often than not melancholy rather than 

gay. 

La Fontaine's personality, on the other hand, was not 

1 " It was a tender, grave, and earnest friendship" (Sainte-Beuve, Port- 
Royal, vi. p. 105), and that Racine appreciated it is proved by the fact that 
when he was dying, embracing Boileau, he said : " I look upon it as good 
fortune for me to die before you" (ibid.). (They met in 1664.) 

2 "Asked in his old age whom he considered the geniuses of his century, 
Boileau repHed : ' I know only three — Corneille, Moliere, . . . and myself.* 
' And Racine ? ' demanded his astonished questioner. ' Racine,' replied 
Boileau, ' was only a bel esprit whom I with difficulty taught to make easy 
verses' " (Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. note, p. 122). 

3 P. 9, 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 279 

calculated to instil into the younger poet any force or stability 
of character. Ever irresponsible and irregular, although 
also older than Racine by nineteen years, the paganism of 
the author of the Fables, says M. Lemaitre, 

" acted like a dissolvant of Racine's rehgious education." ^ 

In fact, by nature La Fontaine was the last man in the world 
to appreciate Port-Royal and its grandeur. He had mocked 
at Escobar ; called Jansenius " the author of vain debates," 
his followers, " authors full of mind and good disputes " — 
but, and here is the crux of the whole matter, he had also 
vowed that the lessons of his Port-Royal friends seemed, to 
him a little sad. Nevertheless, to compliment these friends, he 
wrote a poem called " La Captivite de Saint-Male," on a 
subject taken from M. d'Andilly's " Peres des Deserts " ; 
and in return for Arnauld's admiration of his Fables, deter- 
mined to dedicate to the grave doctor one of his very risque 
Contes, as well as to eulogize him in the Preface. It was 
with the greatest difficulty that Racine and Boileau dissuaded 
the careless poet from this design. Arnauld never knew 
the honour which had threatened him — one which would 
have shocked his pious taste. 

In the early years of their friendship, Racine took his 
Thebai'de to Moliere, now established as the head of the 
Theatre of the Palais Royal,^ and busy producing his own 
and other plays. Paying him a sum in advance, the famous 
actor-manager at once accepted Racine's play, afterwards 
revising the work to suit the requirements of the stage. As 
a requital of this kindness, the poet, who owed it to Moliere ^ 
to first submit to him any subsequent work, is credited with 
having committed the dastardly action of taking his Alexandre 
to the Hotel de Bourgogne, and placing it secretly in rehearsal, 
Moliere knowing nothing of the matter until the production 
of the play at the rival theatre.* This and other breaches 

^ Jean Racine, p. 9. 

2 At this epoch Paris possessed three theatres, the Palais Royal, the 
Marais, and the Hotel de Bourgogne, where during seven months of the year 
performances were given on three days of the week. 

3 The ThSba'ide was not very popular and only given a few times, whereas 
Alexandre was a great success. 

* Dec. 4, 1665. 



28o THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of friendship ^ caused Moliere from that time forward to 
sever all connection with his former associate. 

At Port-Royal, meantime, Racine's saintly aunt, Agnes 
de Saint-Thecle, had been noting her nephew's career, and 
continually pleading with him to give up his mode of life 
which " dishonoured him before God and man." ^ Racine, 
however, only grew angry, and exclaimed that he knew how 
to take care of himself. It was in this state of mind he 
was drawn into what he afterwards considered the greatest 
folly of his life. It seems that in Paris at this time a play- 
wright called Desmaretz de Saint-Sorlin, particularly heated 
against what he called " la fausse £glise des Jansenistes," 
had actually proposed to the King to raise an army of 144,000 
men, and, putting himself at the head of it, to stamp out the 
heresy by blood. This idea being expressed in a satirical 
comedy entitled Les Visionnaires, Nicole took upon himself 
to reply by ten letters, called : 

" Lettres sur I'H^resie Imaginaire," 

following these the next year by eight other letters, styled 
" Les Visionnaires." Not content with ridiculing Desmaretz, 
Nicole enveloped in his anathema all writers of novels and 
theatrical pieces, stating that 

" a maker of novels and a poet of the theatre is a public 
poisoner, not of bodies, but of souls of the faithful who 
may consider themselves guilty of an infinity of spiritual 
homicides." 

Stupidly imagining Nicole to have had the intention of 
humiliating him in his character of poet, Racine indignantly 
retaliated by a piquant letter ^ containing unkind remarks 
against his old friends, insulting especially the two saints of 

^ One of which was making love to the actress Du Pare of MoHere's 
company, and inducing her to leave the staff of the Palais Royal (1667). 
A year later MoHere satirized Racine at his theatre in a play called La 
folle Quevelle ou la Critique d' Andromache. 

2" I conjure you, therefore, my dear nephew," she wrote, " to have pity 
on your soul, and to return into your heart there to consider seriously into 
what an abyss you have thrown yourself." 

^ " And what can novels and comedies have in common with Jansenism ? " 
he exclaimed (letter addressed to " L'Auteur des Heresies imaginaires " 
(Nicole), January 1666). 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 281 

Port-Royal, Le Maitre and Mto Angelique. Of the former 
he said : 

" You reproach M. Desmaretz with his boldness, after an 
intemperate life, in writing on the subject of religion. But tell 
me, Monsieur, what did M. le Maitre do in the world ? He 
pleaded, he made verses ; all that is equally profane, according 
to your maxims. He also avowed in a letter that he had led a 
disorderly life, and that he had retired among you to weep his 
crimes. How, then, did you suffer that he should make so many 
translations, so many books on the subject of Grace ? " 

The satire on Mere Angelique was a story of two Capuchin 
monks, who came to Port-Royal des Champs, and begged 
the usual hospitality. According to custom, they were re- 
ceived courteously but coldly. After they were seated at table, 
and had partaken of wine and white bread, however, somebody 
suggested to Mere Angelique that one of these priests was a 
certain Pere Maillard, who had solicited at Rome the Bulle 
against Jansenius. Outraged, Mere Angelique at once ordered 
that the white bread and wine be removed, and replaced by 
black bread and common cider. Although surprised at the 
change, the priests said nothing, and went to bed. 

The next morning, as they were saying Mass, M. de Bagnols 
came in, and in one of the suspected priests recognized a 
relative of his own. Mere Angelique being told of this, the 
Capuchins were conducted from the church to the refectory, 
and there regaled with the choicest viands the house afforded. 
Racine advised the Messieurs of Port-Royal to make a special 
chapter of this incident, entitled : 

" On the spirit of discernment which God had given the 
holy Mere Angelique." 

No reply was made at first to this attack. But, in a 
reprint made the next year of the Imaginaires, Nicole put in the 
Preface a statement that everything that Racine had said was 
foreign to common sense, and false from beginning to end. 
Racine thereupon wrote another letter, more bitter and 
sarcastic than the first, but, reading it to Boileau, the latter 
prevented its publication. 

In the thirteen years which intervened between Racine's 
rupture and reconciliation with Port-Royal (1664-77), " ^^^ 



282 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

most perfect of French poets " ^ produced his greatest profane 
plays. It was through his tragedy of Phedre that he received 
the first blow of malignant fortune. 

A poet named Pradon had written a play on the same 
subject, treated very differently. It was arranged that both 
works should be given simultaneously, but when the night 
came, owing to a plot of the Due de Nevers and the Duchesse 
de Bouillon, the boxes at Racine's performance were empty, 
those of Pradon full. Moreover, thanks to 15,000 livres 
donated by the Duchess, Pradon's miserable Phedre was played 
sixteen times, while Racine's was at the moment a failure. 
Yet, if we may believe eminent critics, Racine's tragedy was 
a greater success than any one knew. Ever since writing 
Iphtgenie, three years before, the souvenir of Port-Royal had 
been present with the poet.^ In Phedre he had endeavoured to 
reconcile paganism and Christianity, and had almost succeeded: 

" The expression of antique fatalism in ^this piece 
approaches, in short, very sensibly that which a vigorous 
Christianity involves." 

And, says his biographer : 

*' The inquietude which his first Christian tragedy inspired 
in him, succeeded in making him a Christian." ^ 

The disappointment at the failure of Phedre completed his 
disillusion with regard to the glories of the world, and suddenly, 
at thirty-seven years of age, at the acme of his genius, in the 
height of his fame, he was seized with the desire to give up 
everything and to devote himself to the life of the spirit. 
Once becoming possessed with this idea, the ever-present 
remembrance of Port-Royal and his early life in the Desert 
weighed more and more heavily upon him, until he was filled 
with the thought of becoming reconciled to his former masters. 
To obtain the forgiveness of Nicole was comparatively 

^ " If," said Retz, " Turenne is the most perfect of French heroes, 
Racine is the most perfect of French poets." Valincour, one of Racine's 
best friends, and his successor at the Academy, thus described him : "Of 
a medium height, agreeable physiognomy, frank face, pointed nose, the mark 
of a mind inchned to raillery. ... At the end of his life, piety moderated 
this trait. He was pitiless against deeds, pitiful toward sufferers" [Gaulois, 
10 Avril 1899). 

2 Jules Lemaitre, Jean Racine, p. 268. ^ /^^-^ p ^^ly. 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 283 

easy. When a relative led the repentant poet to his lodgings, 
this old master received his former pupil with open arms. But, 
with Arnauld, it was more difficult. The brother of Mere 
Angelique could not forget Racine's pleasantries with regard 
to the two Capuchin monks. Several times Boileau tried 
to effect a reconciliation, and failed. Finally, this zealous 
friend took Arnauld a copy of Phedre with the author's com- 
pliments. Arnauld read the masterpiece, was mollified, and 
when, brought by Boileau the poet came and in the presence 
of a large company fell on his knees before Arnauld, the 
latter also dropped down beside the penitent, both embracing 
in this posture. 1 

Fortunately, Racine's wise confessor induced him to 
renounce the project he had made in the first enthusiasm of 
his repentance, of becoming a monk of Chartreux, and advised 
him to lead the saner life for one of his disposition by settling 
down into family relations. He married, therefore, and, 
living henceforth " like a good bourgeois," had five children 
whom he raised in a Christian manner. 

The very year of his reconciliation with Port-Royal (1677), 
Racine and Boileau were appointed Royal Historians. Follow- 
ing Louis XIV in all his campaigns, it was their duty to 
report the exploits of the Grand Monarque.^ Always devoted 
to Louis XIV, from this time on, Racine was possessed by 
but two passions : his religion and his King. 

In his official capacity he revelled in flowery language 
and extravagant compliments. Louis xiv himself, albeit fond 
of flattery, felt this over-praise of Racine, for he remarked 
with regard to one of his eulogies : 

" I am very satisfied ; I would praise you more, if you had 
praised me less." ^ 

But Racine's love for his Sovereign did not lead him to dis- 

^ Gustave Larroumet, Racine, p. 30. 

2 November 3, 1677, Madame de Sevigne wrote of Racine and Despreaux 
as follows : " The King said to them four days ago : ' I am sorry you did 
not come on this last campaign ; you would have seen the war, and your 
journey would not have been long.' Racine replied : ' Sire, we are two 
bourgeois who have only city clothes ; we ordered some for the campaign ; 
but the places which you attacked were taken sooner than our clothes were 
finished.' This was agreeably received." 

' Vie de Messire Antoine Arnauld, 1781, vol. ii. p. 413. 



284 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

guise his connection with the sect so hated by Louis xiv. He 
adored the latter, but in the midst of his most pressing duties 
at Versailles, where he was occupied chiefly in celebrating the 
great deeds of his royal master, he never forgot his friends at 
Port-Royal.^ Indeed, it was in order to make the Cardinal de 
Noailles favourable to the Port-Royalists that he wrote the 
Abrege de VHistoire de Port-Royal, a work considered by the 
critics as a marvel of clear statement of events as well as 
concise and elegant writing. Still, he remained in such favour, 
that when, during an illness of the monarch, the poet sent to 
Versailles four Cantiques Spirituelles written at the King's 
request for St. Cyr, and set to music by Moreau, ill as he was, 
Louis XIV had them at once sung to him. He was also in the 
habit of keeping Racine near him, and on one occasion even 
desired him to sleep in his room. 

After the representation of Racine's Andromache at St. 
Cyr, Madame de Maintenon wrote to the poet and begged 
him to compose for her in his moments of leisure 
" A kind of poem, moral or historical, from which love 
should be entirely banished, which the young ladies of 
St. Cyr could act." 2 

This request embarrassed Racine, who had renounced 
play writing fully six years before, yet he was enough of a 
courtier still to know that he must accede to any request of 
this powerful lady. Therefore, after some deliberation and 
advice from Boileau, he compounded with his conscience by 
choosing the subject of Esther, which seemed to solve the 
difficulty. On proposing it to the authorities of St. Cyr, they 
conceded the story to be full of 

"great lessons of the love of God and detachment from the 
world in the midst of the world itself." ^ 

^ When on April 25, 1899, the two hundredth anniversary of Racine's 
death was celebrated at La Ferte Milon and by a pilgrimage to Port-Royal 
des Champs, articles appeared in the Gaulois, Temps, and Figaro, written by 
some of the greatest litterateurs of France, in the first-named, M. Leon 
Seche said : " From the time of his conversion, the Abbey had no protector 
more vigilant than Racine — one might say that he covered it with his body 
... for the Court and the Archbishopric found him before them each time 
they wished to take rigorous measures with regard to the nuns. He thought 
and lived but for Port-Royal, and if he continued to go to Versailles, it was 
less to pay his court to the King than with the design of humanizing him." 

2 De Lescure, Souvenirs de la Marquise de Caylus, p. 164. 

3 Theophile Lavallee, VHistoire de la Maison de St. Cyr, p. 77. 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 285 

In 1689, six performances of the new play were given at 
St. Cyr. Here, in the great vestibule adjoining the dormitories, 
two vast amphitheatres were arranged against the walls, the 
largest for the pupils, dressed in different colours according 
to their ages : pupils up to eleven years being in red ; those 
less than fourteen, in green ; less than seventeen, in yellow ; 
and lower down, the eldest, in blue. Between the two amphi- 
theatres were seated the spectators from the outside. The 
room was magnificently lighted, the scenes painted by Born, 
the Court decorator, the choruses accompanied by the 
musicians of the King. The Persian costumes of the actresses 
had cost more than forty thousand livres, and the precious 
stones which ornamented them those formerly used by the 
King in his ballets. 

All the grandees of the Court craved invitations to these 
performances, not only out of curiosity, but in order to pay 
court to the King and Madame de Maintenon. Bossuet was 
at the premike, when the King, stationing himself at the 
door, remained there, holding his cane erect to serve as a 
barrier, until the guests had entered, when he gave the 
signal to begin. 

The success of Esther was tremendous. Everybody tried 
to fit the great personages to the different characters, seeing 
in Vashti, Madame de Montespan, the replaced favourite ; 
in Madame de Maintenon, Esther herself ; in Mardochee, 
perhaps the Grand Arnauld ; in Aman, Louvois ; while who 
could the race so hated by Aman be but the Jansenists ? And 
surely 

" ce lieu par la Grace habit e " 

could only be the monastery in the Desert ? 

All Port-Royal was enthusiastic over this play. Quesnel 
in a letter to Pere Du Breuil said : 

" I have read it with much pleasure. The sentiments of 
Christian piety and the maxims of a heart truly royal are 
expressed therein so happily that one cannot help being 
touched." 

But, added the true Jansenist, who did not approve of the 
theatre, 

" If one had been satisfied to put it on paper, I should have 
been still more content." 



286 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

It is said that Esther, more than any other of Racine's plays, 
was the reflection of his childhood's days in the woods and 
plains of the Valley Yvette. 

The cause of the poet's disgrace was a memoir on the 
misery of the people, which he had drawn up at the request 
of Madame de Maintenon, and which she promised to keep 
secret from the King. In this writing, he rather criticized 
the royal policy. Unfortunately, the pamphlet fell into the 
King's hands, and Madame de Maintenon was obliged to 
divulge the name of its author. From that day, by the 
change in the King's manner, Racine felt that he was no 
longer in favour. At last Madame de Maintenon, meeting 
the poet one day in the Gardens of Versailles, tried to console 
him by saying that she would bring him back good weather 
again, if only he would let this cloud pass. 

" No, no, Madame, you will never bring it back to me." 
*' What ! " exclaimed the favourite, " do you doubt my 
heart or my credit ? " 

" I know, Madame," said the former favourite, " both 
your credit and the goodness you have for me, but I have an 
aunt who loves me in a very different fashion : this holy maid 
asks God every day for new disgrace, new humiliation, new 
subject of penitence, and she will have more credit than you." 

At that moment a carriage was heard approaching. 

" Fly ! " cried Madame de Maintenon. '' It is the King ! " ^ 

This was the last blow at Racine's love for his Sovereign. 
On the 2ist April 1699, the disgraced courtier and inspired 
poet died, aged only fifty-nine, leaving, as last earthly wish, 
the request that he be interred at Port-Royal des Champs. 

" I desire," he wrote, " that after my death my body be 
carried to Port -Royal des Champs, and inhumed in the 
cemetery at the foot of the grave of M. Hamon. I supplicate 
very humbly the Mother Abbess and the nuns to be good enough 
to accord me this honour, although I recognize that I am 
unworthy of it. 

Boileau is one authority for the belief that Racine had 
come to virtue through Religion, his temperament inclining 
him to be satirical, restless, jealous, and voluptuous. ^ Sainte- 

^ Louis Racine, Mimoires. ^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 106. 



RACINE'S QUARREL AND RECONCILIATION 287 

Beuve says he was born " docile," ^ but all biographers agree 
in pronouncing him " difficult " at least. But whatever 
his character, his will testifies that Port-Royal had finally 
become to him, after all, the reality of his life, and this in 
defiance of the malicious epigi'am which, apropos of his 
desire to find an eternal home at Port-Royal in the 
" Solitude," went the rounds of Paris : 

" II n'aurait jamais fait cela de son vivant." 2 

1 Port-Royal, vi. p. 121. 

* " Never would he have done such a thing in his lifetime." 



CHAPTER III 
PERSECUTION RESUMED 

" Ne vaut il pas mieux endurer une fois la mort que I'apprehender k tous 
moments ? " 

DURING the ten years which followed the Peace of the 
Church, Port-Royal proper sustained the loss of many 
of its courageous spirits, prominently that of Mere 
Agnes de Saint-Paul, the 19th February 1671. Her funeral 
was the occasion of pathetic incidents. Antoine Arnauld 
officiated, and no less than thirteen ecclesiastics took part 
in her interment. We are told that a few years later, when 
De Saci's obsequies were being celebrated, the voices of the 
Solitaires were choked with tears, while the nuns 

" sang to the end with a gravity which became the subject 
of astonishment and admiration." ^ 

On the occasion of the ceremony for Mere Agnes, while chanting 
the In exitu, it was the turn of the nuns to be overcome, 
and had not the Messieurs continued, the music would have 
ended abruptly. 

M. de Perehxe died the same year as Mere Agn^ : 

" In a transport of lively regret for all he had done against 
the nuns, whom at the bottom of his heart he had always 
recognized as innocent." ^ 

1 The singing at Port-Royal was celebrated for its peculiar religious 
quality, and this was explained by the fact that when novices or postulants 
entered the monastery from the world without, they were not allowed to sing 
with the others until their voices had lost the artificial or worldly sound, being 
sometimes condemned for months to complete silence, while they " learned 
to listen to themselves, to understand themselves, and to give to their voices 
a tone of intelUgence and expression so faithful to the pronunciation that 
their chant was in reality a prayer." 

* Racine, Abrigi, p. 212. 

288 



PERSECUTION RESUMED 289 

Robert Amauld d'Andilly, a patriarch of eighty-five, was the 
next to pass away, 

*' like an olive branch among its shoots." ^ 

Most historians, Racine among the number, feel that the 
history of Port-Royal really ended with the Peace of the 
Church. And though this was practically true, the period 
before the final destruction has its own peculiar characteristics. 
Distinguished more in individuals than as a whole, Port-Royal 
oppressed was no longer the heroic figure of the lion brought 
to bay, but rather that of the hunted stag, weary with the 
long chase, and so dazed as almost to be glad of capture and 
annihilation. Even before Madame de Longueville's death 
the King had become restless, pursued by the ever-present 
thought that while the Jansenists lived his State would be 
menaced. As M. de Camus wrote, 5th July 1676, to the Abb6 
de Pont chateau : 

*' Nothing but a great silence and forgetfulness by the 
world can save them in this matter. Jansenism is finished — 
no pretext must be given to bring it up again." ^ 

It was Nicole who broke the silence so recommended by 
M. de Camus, Nicole who, assisted by Arnauld, was the author 
of the new Letter of the Law, the Book called The Perpetuity 
of Faith in the Eucharist ^ — a defence of the old Catholic 
tradition as opposed to the new Calvinistic ideas. Although 
only the Dedicatory Epistle to Pope Clement ix was the work 
of Arnauld, the Perpetuity of the Faith brought him many 
results, among others a letter from Leibniz, the great philo- 
sopher, then a very young man, as well as the first favourable 
mention he had had for many years from the Sor bonne. It 
was said that in one town of France alone fifteen persons of 
different conditions had been converted to Catholicism by 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 15. 

2 Ihid., p. 151. Madame de Longueville also wrote unceasingly to Madame 
de Sable : " Au nom de Dieu, poussez bien M, Arnauld a se taire." In 1668 
she reported the desire of M. de Comminges that there should be silence, 
saying again : " Faites seulement de vostre cote que M. Amauld ne dise 
mot du monde " (V. Cousin, Madame de SahU, Letters in Appendix). 

3 The first volume appeared in 1669, and was accompanied by the appro- 
bation of 27 prelates and 20 Doctors, Bossuet among the number. The second 
appeared in 1672 ; the third in 1676, 

19 



290 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

this book. In Paris, a great many grand personages were 
induced by it to return to the Roman CathoHc Church : 

" Port -Royal at this moment," wrote Saint e-Beuve, " thus 
served by the most direct action the pohcy of Louis xiv and 
anticipated Bossuet." ^ 

Unfortunately, about the same time, Nicole had been 
induced to write a letter to the Pope on the subject of the 
relaxed morality of the Casuists. This act so greatly dis- 
pleased Louis XIV that, on the death of Madame de Longue- 
ville and Cardinal Retz, Nicole thought it best to leave Paris. 
He therefore crossed the frontier and fled to Brussels. In 
June following, Arnauld, compromised with Nicole and also 
suspected by the King of having written against the Regale,'^ 
left Paris in disguise ; and, accompanied by two friends, went 
to Mons in Belgium, afterwards to Brussels, where he met 
Nicole, now fifty-four, tired, infirm, and asthmatic. Though 
fourteen years older, the champion of Jansenism was as in- 
domitable as ever, and to Nicole's plea of feebleness and 
weariness, he only answered : 

'* We shall have all Eternity to rest in.** 

But even these courageous words did not suffice to give the 
more yielding Jansenist enough strength to persevere. He 
refused to follow Arnauld to Holland, and thus these two 
friends cl la mort et d la vie,^ after twenty-five years of constant 
companionship, now separated to meet no more.* 

1 Port-Royal, iv. p. 445. 

* The Regale was the right enjoyed by Princes of making use of the revenue 
from vacant prelatures, and of nominating their own candidates to all benefices 
in the gift of the defunct prelate. The Regale had been established in a 
great many parts of the kingdom. Louis xiv in 1673 declared the practice 
universal (Besoigne, Vies des Quatres Eviques, vol. i. p. 198). 

* An expression used by Arnauld in a letter of adieu to Nicole, dated 
9th August 1679 : " et quelque parti que vous preniez, la petite peine que 
j'aurois pourrois avoir ne m'empechera jamais de vous regarder comme mon 
ami d la mort et d la vie." 

* For some time Nicole wandered about Belgium, and finally, after much 
manoeuvring, he was allowed to return to his native town of Chartres, where 
he lived under the name of De Bercy. During his exile he continued writing, 
and at last in May 1683 he returned to Paris, and took up his abode next 
the convent of La Crdche. There he had a fine library, and some portraits by 
Champagne of ancient nuns of Port-Royal ; and on certain days of the week 
he held a kind of Academy in his rooms. At last he took up his pen against 
Quietism, and while still occupied on the subject, in 1695, he died. Although 



PERSECUTION RESUMED 29T 

In the meantime the destruction of Port-Royal was steadily 
progressing, M. de Harlai, the new Archbishop, being anything 
but favourable to the Jansenists. If gossip may be believed, 
he had several reasons for this animosity. In the first place, 
Madame de Longueville had always treated him very coldly, 
and it was not pleasant to be ignored by a princess of her rank 
and condition. Then, Antoine Amauld, in a letter to Mere 
Constance, Superior of the Convent of the Visitation at Angers, 
believing M. de Harlai to have stirred up trouble in that 
province, had called him a " monster of Antichrist." This 
letter had been intercepted, it was said, and fallen into 
the hands of the Archbishop himself. However, as M. de 
Harlai was actuated principally by motives of a political bias, 
his object in all his dealings with Port-Royal may have simply 
been with a view to pleasing the King, and extinguishing 
opposition for himself in the Church. The methods of his 
procedure differed essentially from those M. de Perefixe had 
used. While the latter was rude and brusque, this prelate 
was always most polite and amiable. 

Some time after his appointment, M. de Harlai paid a visit 
to Port-Royal des Champs. Very courteously he intimated 
to Mere Angelique de St. Jean, who the previous year had 
been elected Abbess, that it was the King's wish they should 
receive no more prospective nuns until the number under 
her charge should have been reduced to fifty Professes de chceur, 
ordering her therefore to dismiss the present postulantes, 
also remarking casually that the King desired she should send 
away what pupils there were, and that from that time forward 
no more were to be received. 

Although Mere Angelique was fully aware that words were 
useless, 

" I threw myself on my knees,'* she related, " to beg for 
those poor girls," etc.^ 

Finally, being driven to declare a reason for his action, 

" The King," said M. de Harlai, " wishes to rid his ears of 

generally liked and respected, Nicole's lack of popularity at Port-Royal is 
shown by the fact that after his death they forgot to talce his heart to the 
Champs. 

1 Relation de la M^re Angilique de St. Jean, 



292 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

the continual cry, ' Ces Messieurs ! Ces Messieurs ! ' . . . 
It is the RepubHc of Port -Royal which must be suppressed." ^ 

After having so agreeably and pleasantly dealt the death- 
blow to Mere Angelique and her nuns, the Archbishop, as 
he entered his carriage to return to Paris, suavely told M. de 
Saci that it was the King's intention that neither he nor 
any of the other ecclesiastics should remain longer at the 
Champs. Advising him, therefore, to retire at once, he 
graciously accorded him and his companions fifteen days 
in which to effect their retreat. 

The day after the Archbishop's visit, the Gardener-Solitaire 
known as '' Mercier " was the first to leave Port-Royal. The 
duty of this humble hermit at Les Granges had been for eight 
years to cultivate the gardens and the vines, the product of 
which, together with fish from the pond, was sold for the 
benefit of the monastery. Yet Mercier of Les Granges, 
illustrious by birth, fortune, and talents, had been one of 
the most brilliant men of France, his life a series of sur- 
prising adventures and incidents. Since the age of seventeen, 
when through M. de Rebours he had met Singlin, it had 
taken this penitent — Sebastien Joseph de Coislin, Abb6 
de Ponchateau, who at seven years of age was possessed 
of three abbeys and already tonsured — twenty-seven years 
to sow his wild oats, and finally put himself under the rule 
of true contrition of heart. 

" The life of M. de Pont chateau was traversed by so many 
different events that it is difiicult to unravel them." ^ 

After meeting Singlin, he visited Port-Royal for a short 
time, but the world tempting him again, he suddenly left, and 
directed his steps towards Rome, without even saying good- 
bye to his friends in the Desert. Thus his life of adventure 
began, one which was crossed and re-crossed by fleeting con- 
nections with the Jansenists. Since the period of the 
Provincial Letters, when he had been active in connection 
with Port-Royal, he had corresponded with M. Singlin, 
who advised him to leave his present mode^ of life and enter 
a monastery. This he avowed he would^like to do, but 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 1 68. 

2 This short account of the Hfe of M. de Pontchateau is taken from that 
written by Beaubrun, and given by Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vol. vi. pp. 
302-336. Also Recueil de Plusieurs Pieces, p. 410. 



PERSECUTION RESUMED 293 

could not yet manage. " Do not say can-not," said Singlin, 
" but will not." These words aroused M. de Pontchateau to 
definite action. On the Peace of the Church he retired to 
Port-Royal des Champs, where he lived in a little maisonette 
with one large room on the ground-floor, from which a stair- 
case led to an attic above. As M. de Pontchateau had 
relinquished all his possessions on adopting the life of a 
Solitaire, even giving his magnificent library to Arnauld, the 
treasures of the room below consisted in 

" tapestry of matting, with the picture of St. Arsene on it, a 
great wooden cross, several sentences taken from the Scrip- 
tures, some geographical charts, a few portraits, and a view 
of the Grand Chartreuse." 

The favourite duty of this original character was that of 
digging graves for the nuns. 

" I leave it to M. de Saci," he said, " to exhort them to 
death ; but to inter them properly, no one understands it 
better than I." 1 

On leaving the Granges, the morning after M. de Harlai's 
visit, M. de Pontchateau went abroad, and from that time on 
took long journeys in the interest of the Jansenists, sometimes 
living with Arnauld in Brussels, sometimes elsewhere, dis- 
guising his identity under all sorts of names. Finally, after 
giving himself up to great austerity in a Belgian convent, this 
brother of a Duchess of France died as plain M. Fleuri in the 
house of a churchwarden of St. Gervais. 

From M. de Harlai's dispersion of the Solitaires in 1679, the 
history of Port-Royal des Champs is monotonous and grey ; 
and until its final ruin, its story is one of gradual extinguishing 
— of old age and death, with no influx of new blood. The only 
light and shade in the picture was furnished by the devotion 
of several Confessors — M. le Tourneux, M. Eustace, M. 
Bocquillot — and of the poet Santeuil. To the latter, a Canon 
of St. Victor in Paris, Port-Royal owed much. Taking a 
great fancy to the monastery in the country on a chance 
visit there, he returned again and again to cheer by his wit 
and good-humour the few hermits clinging to the place. 
He himself admitted that he was a little mad,^ and certainly 

1 Vies Interessantes et ^difiantes, vol. i. p. 378. 

2 " Je suis tel que vous me voyez, mais le Christianisme ne defend d'etre 
fou." 



294 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



his nature was, in its frankness, rude joviality, and comical 
devotion, one absolutely foreign to anything Port-Royal had 
previously known. He had a sincere admiration for the nuns, 
whose demeanour under insults and unkindness so aroused 
his devotion that he took them as his models and spoke of them 
as those " holy women," those '' angels." The atmosphere of 
the Monastery seemed to strike deep into his soul, for, as he 
wrote Arnauld in 1694 : 

" I have just come back from Port -Royal, and in entering, 
your letter was given me. I have walked on the tombs of 
yours and my best friends, who teach me more from their 
tombs than all the troup of Jesuits from their pulpits." ^ 

^ Dinoiiart, Santoliana, p. 273. Santeuil was always among those eccle- 
siastics who on fete days went to Port-Royal des Champs and joined 
in the processions and celebrations — the only joys of the last days of the 
Abbe5^ See Nicrologe. 



1 

s. W 



CHAPTER IV 
PORT-ROYAL IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 

" Paganisme immortel, es-tu mort ? On le dit ; 
Mais Pan tout bas s'en moque, et la Sirdne en rit." 

ARNAULD had not kept silent in his exile. His body 
was necessarily quiet ; not so his brain and pen. He 
wrote continually, and, in spite of warnings, could 
not resist discussing the very questions which were like red 
rags to that royal bull, Louis xiv.^ Naturally, his indiscre- 
tions reacted on Port-Royal : he not only imperilled the 
Monastery by his writings, but he provoked many other 
disasters to individuals by the imprudence of sending them 
letters and books, thus directing upon them suspicion and 
persecution. 

Fortunately the place of his retreat remained undiscover- 
able by the royal agents. As Boileau said : 

" The King is too lucky to find M. Arnauld." ^ 

At this moment Arnauld' s active mind suddenly became 
fixed on another matter, and with ardour he threw himself 
into a controversy, destined to be famous, with Pere Male- 
branche, the disciple of Descartes. 

When Arnauld was studying at the Sorbonne, the mind 
of the moment was full of Descartes, who was alarming 
scientists by going further than his illustrious predecessors, 
Bacon, Galileo, and Kepler. In Descartes' student days, 
Galileo, who had also tried to reconcile Science and Religion, 
and had held that Geometry should be the basis for all investi- 

^ M^re Angelique had been almost contemptuous of Arnauld's uncontroll- 
able belief in discussion : Fontaine relates that she once said to him : "If 
those people should give themselves up to the Truth, you would at once 
believe that it was your fine writings which had accompHshed it ; and it is 
not this which the grace that you uphold teaches you " {MMwires, ii. p. 94). 

2 Vie de Messire Antoine Arnauld, i7?>2, ii. p. 194. 

29s 



296 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

gation into Nature and Science,^ was still influencing thought, 
while Harvey, following in his footsteps, had just published 
his great discoveries on the circulation of the blood, and 
the whole world was pulsating with him and others in their 
extension of the knowledge of the physical and scientific 
laws which govern the universe. Descartes was among the 
first to welcome Harvey's discovery of circulation as the initial 
step towards the reduction of vital phenomena to physical 
laws. The result of Descartes' own study in the Book of 
Life was to teach him apparently the one truth : cogito, 
ergo sum : I think, hence I am. From this he deduced the 
existence of God. 

Naturally all this appealed to Arnauld, for it was a passion 
with him to reason, and as long as the scientist and philosopher 
did not conflict with religion, he felt that to Descartes " the 
world owed a method of reasoning and an enthusiasm which 
sounded the knell of the old scholastic learning," against 
which he and the Port-Royal scholars had long been striving. 
During this period at the Sorbonne, Arnauld was fortunate 
enough to see a manuscript copy of Descartes' Meditations, 
and, after reading it carefully, while making four objections 
to its reasoning, he at the same time declared that there was 
an exact accord between Descartes' arguments and those of 
St. Augustine, who, he asserted, also sustained the premise : 
cogito, ergo sum} As theologian, Arnauld wished to reconcile 
Descartes' definition of Substance with the dogma of the 
Real Presence. 3 Descartes, on his part, did not combat 
Arnauld because he felt they were striving for the same thing, 
i.e. to refute the vulgar doctors of the schools, and above 
all the Jesuits. 

It was during the Fronde that all Port-Royal became 
imbued with the excitement of the new philosophy. Specula- 
tion was in the air, and for a time subjects of scientific import 
took precedence over even religious questions. While the 
repairs and rebuilding of the Monastery were going on, an 
hundred men were lodged at Vaumurier under the hospitality 

^ J. H. Bridges, New Calendar of Great Men. Frederic Harrison, 
p. 6or. 

2 In his book, Des Vrayes et des Fausses I dies, p. 8. 

* " For," he wrote to M. du Vaucel, 13th Nov. 1692, " it must be one of 
two things : either to despair of proving it by reason, or to allow that M. 
Descartes has proved it better than any one else." 



IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 297 

and direction of the Due de Luines. Meeting together for 
their meals, these men of brains and mental activity, albeit 
engaged in physical labour, naturally were drawn into deep 
discussions. Their leader was the host, author of a translation 
of Descartes* Meditations, and naturally much preoccupied 
with matters therein treated. That the Due de Luines' 
version of the Meditations remains to this day a standard 
one, was due to the careful education he had received in philo- 
sophy from one of the Masters of the Petites £coles, M. du 
Chesne, a very learned man, who knew how to impart his 
knowledge to his pupil. AU talk between the guests at 
Vaumurier turned thus on scientific inquiry, and speculation 
was warmed and excited by the wonder of the discoveries 
then revolutionizing ideas and methods. Like the rest of 
the educated world, the thoughts of these workers turned 
eagerly to the question as to whether the sun was a mass 
of particles, whether animals were machines, etc. etc. The 
theory of Automatons was a part of Descartes' philosophy. 
Other philosophers, Montaigne among the number, had 
tried to prove that animals used Reason better than man. 
Charron went even further than Montaigne, and claimed 
that he saw more difference between man and man, than 
between man and beast. ^ Later on, to find arguments against 
spirituality, Voltaire enjoyed comparing beasts with men 
to the disadvantage of the latter. 

It was from a religious standpoint that Port-Royal com- 
bated the idea of animals possessing reason. It seemed 
impious to them to elevate the beast to a level with man. 
When, therefore, Descartes brought forward his theory of 
Automatons — i.e. that animals are simple machines, obeying 
the general laws of mechanics — Port-Royal followed him 
to the extent of considering animals as deprived of intelligence, 
sensibility, even of life itself. The whole action of the dumb 
creatures, they believed, resulted from the moving of springs — 
they were clocks, composed of wheels and more or less com- 
plicated mechanism, which only acted when wound up. Even 
Pascal was at accord with Descartes on this point, and soon 
Port-Royal had become so devoted to the Cartesian theory 
that it was absolutely without pity for animals. It seemed 

1 " II (le sage) est autant pardessus le commun des hommes que celui 
du commun est pardessus les betes." 



298 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

nothing to them to whip a dog, or to dissect him alive — 
the poor thing had no feehng.^ 

A few SoUtaires there were, however, who stoutly opposed 
this idea. These were men of sense and experience, who 
in the hunt and elsewhere had had varied proofs of the sagacity 
and sensibility of their dumb friends, To discredit the theory 
of Automatons, the Due de Liancourt, himself a great hunter, 
told the following story — one which La Fontaine afterward 
used for his fable of " The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg." 

" I have two dogs over there," said the Duke, *' each of 
whom has his day of turning the spit. One of them, becoming 
tired of this, hid one day when they were about to fetch him 
to his work, and they had to take his comrade in his stead. 
This dog, however, cried and beckoned with his tail for them 
to follow him. Going to the barn, he unearthed the other dog 
and pulled him out of his hiding place." 

" Are these automatons ? " triumphantly asked the Duke.^ 

Writing one day to her daughter apropos of Cardinal Retz, 
who, like Madame de Grignan herself, was a strong Cartesian, 
Madame de Sevigne said : 

" Talk a little to the Cardinal of your machines ; of the 
machines who love, who have predilections ; of machines that 
are jealous, of machines that are afraid. Avaunt, avaunt, 
you make fun of us, Descartes never pretended that he could 
make us believe it." ^ 

But the theory of Automatons was, after all, a mere baga- 
telle, and not the real issue of the sympathy between Descartes 
and Port-Royal. The point in his philosophy which un- 
doubtedly most interested the Messieurs of Port-Royal was a 
statement contained in the last chapter of the Discours de la 
Methode, wherein was a forecast of the Positive philosophy 
of the future, as 

" resting not on scholastic subtleties, but on a solid basis of 
mathematical and biological knowledge, and directed to the 
practical service of man." * 

Thus Descartes' spirit and method of thought, the geometric, 
being also that of Pascal, was quite logically akin to that of 
Port-Royal. 

* Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, ii. p. 316. 

2 Du Fosse, MSmoires, ii. p. 470. 

3 Lettre du 23 Mars 1672. 

* J. H. Bridges, New Calendar of Great Men, p. 485. 



IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 299 

Pascal was Port-Royal*s first philosopher. When De Saci 
learned that the great mathematician was coming to the 
Champs, he rather dreaded meeting the brilliant man of the 
world of whose personal charm and scientific acquisitions he 
had heard much. His only safeguard against the disturbing 
attraction this man so endowed by nature, so deep-read in all 
the secrets of the universe, would necessarily exert upon him, 
was, he knew, 

" the holy knowledge to be found in the Scriptures and the 
Fathers." ^ 

On arrival at Port-Royal, however, Pascal, like most great 
people, seemed very simple and quite like ordinary mortals. 
Yet, as was his custom, De Saci at once began talking on the 
subject which, as he supposed, lay nearest his new penitent's 
heart : philosophy. He then further courted discussion by 
begging Pascal to talk freely about Epictetus and Montaigne, 
confessedly the former's favourite authors. 

At the time of this memorable interview, which came to be 
known as " the Interview on Montaigne and Epictetus," De 
Saci was forty-one, Pascal ten years younger. De Saci based 
his arguments on St. Augustine, while his opponent rested his 
on Epictetus and Montaigne, and it was astonishing to see 
how, by their different paths, each arrived at the same ultimate 
conclusion. 

" And," continues the Relation, "as De Saci listened to 
Pascal's exposition of Epictetus and Montaigne, he believed 
himself to be living in a new country and hearing a new language, 
and repeated to himself the words of St. Augustine : 

*' ' O God of Truth ! those who know these subtleties of 
reasoning, are they therefore more agreeable ? ' " 

Acknowledging his astonishment at Pascal's skill in turning 
things about, he further remarked that it was not every one 
who knew, like Pascal, the secret of extracting such sage re- 
flections from what he had read. The outcome of the inter- 
view^ was therefore mutual surprise and admiration, for Pascal, 
on his side, admired De Saci's clear mind, logical conclusions, 
the solidity of his reasoning, his penetrating piety. Pascal, 

1 Fontaine, Memoires, ii. p. 55. 

2 For this interview, see Fontaine, Memoires, ii. pp. 56-73. 



300 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

said the latter, resembled those clever doctors who, by their 
adroit manner of preparing the most deadly poisons, knew how 
to extract from them the most efficacious remedies. 

De Saci is also credited with a famous remark concerning 
the old school and the new : 

" Having himself usurped authority in the church, it was 
only just that Aristotle should in his turn have been super- 
seded by another tyrant. Descartes was like a thief who had) 
just killed another thief, and taken his spoils from him." 

" So much the better," he added humorously, '' the more] 
deaths, the less enemies." 

Pascal, however, saw further than Arnauld into the conse-j 
quences of Descartes' reasoning. He followed it out to its] 
logical'Conclusion, which he found to be not God, but negation. 
It led,|he said, to rational truths alone, and, extracting from! 
Reason its inherent quality, did not teach Jesus Christ. 
Refusing, therefore, to endorse Descartes' purely mathematical 
and material arguments, he tried to prove the old idea that, 
if for no other reason personal interest calls upon one to adhere 
to Christian doctrine.^ 

Of all the Port-Royalists, Arnauld and Nicole were the most 
enthusiastic Cartesians. They employed his method in the 
composition of their General Grammar and Logic, and in the 
preface to these books candidly confessed that they had 
borrowed some reflections 

'" from the books of a celebrated philosopher of the century." 

Port-Royal had never actually come into conflict with 
philosophy, however, until during Antoine Arnauld's exile in 
Brussels, when the untiring controversialist was impelled to 
combat the principles of Pere Malebranche, the pupil and 
disciple of Descartes, who, taking only the metaphysics of 
Descartes, carried it further than his master into exagger- 
ated idealism. Reahsing the consequences of this, Arnauld, 
as well as his fellow-theologian of another camp, Bossuet, 
cried halt. 

^ Pascal thought with Descartes that beasts were only automatons, but, 
says the Recueil (p. 472), " he could not suffer his manner of explaining the 
formation of things, and he often said : ' I cannot pardon Descartes ; in all 
his philosophy, he should certainly have wished to dispense with God, but he 
could not prevent himself from running up against him in order to have the 
world set in motion ; after that, he no longer has anything to do with God." 



IN CONFLICT WITH PHILOSOPHY 301 

The evolution of P^re Malebranche from the Oratory to 
Philosophy was interesting. 

One day in 1664, passing a book-shop in the Rue St. 
Jacques, he had chanced to open Descartes' Treatise on Man. 

" Reading it with transports which made his heart beat," ^ 
from that hour he abandoned himself exclusively to the study 
of Descartes. The result of his ten years' absorption was 
six thick volumes, entitled La Recherche de la Verite (The 
Search after Truth). 

On the publication of this work, Amauld at first esteemed 
it, and attached himself to the author, although they did not 
meet personally until four years later (1679). When finally 
they did come together, at the house of the Marquis de Roucy, 
De Treville, Pere Quesnel, and Le Vassor being present, a 
lively conversation ensued. Soon, however, it was discovered 
that personal intercourse between the two men was impossible. 
Malebranche's peculiarity was that he could not be interrupted 
when talking, while it was impossible for Amauld not to 
break in. They, therefore, agreed to carry on any discussion 
by letter, and parted good friends.^ 

When in 1680 Malebranche sent Amauld in exile his next 
effort of the kind, a treatise on the Nature of Grace, all sym- 
pathy between him and the Jansenist was lost. In reply 
Amauld wrote his 

Traite des Vraies et des Fausses I dees, 

in which he was so cruelly hard on Malebranche as to draw 
forth a protest from his friends. 

In Malebranche Amauld combated the very basis of his 
system, which was that we see all things in God. Like Faydit, 
the Jansenist exclaimed : 

" Lui qui voit tout en Dieu, n'y voit pas qu'il est fou ! " 

Malebranche retorted by calling Amauld un esprit chagrin — un 
vieux doctor — accusing him of dogmatizing. 

Speaking one day of the quarrel between himself and 
Arnauld, Malebranche protested that the former had not 
understood him. 

1 Fontenelle, Vie de Nicolas Malebranche. 
^ Blampignon, ]&tude sur Malebranche, 



302 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

" And who then do you wish to understand you, mon 
Pere/' replied Boileau, " if M. Arnauld does not ? " 

To make a very long matter short, the end of the celebrated 
dispute was that Arnauld remained victor in his party, Male- 
branche in his. Of the Recherche de la VeriU Fontenelle said : 

" There reigns in this work a great art of putting abstract 
ideas in the light, of joining them together, and strengthening 
them by their union." ^ 

What really annoyed Arnauld with regard to Malebranche 
v/as the latter's tendency to philosophize against experience. 
According to Arnauld, God has a general design to save all men, 
but this indeterminate design can only be realized by occasional 
causes : 

" Suppose," he said, " an organ in a church. The general 
will of God is represented by the wind blown through the pipes, 
the air which circulates around at will. But there is need 
of an organist to determine this or that sound. The organist 
in this case is Jesus Christ." ^ 

And thus, finding Philosophy to ignore the Divine Organist, 
Port-Royal, as Pascal had predicted, was finally obliged to 
break definitely with Philosophy as being inimical to Religion. 

1 Vie de Nicolas Malebranche. 

2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 433. 



CHAPTER V 

ARNAULD'S DEATH. HIS SUCCESSORS: QUESNEL, 
DU GUET, AND BOILEAU 

" Quelle mesintelligence entre I'esprit et le coeur ! Le philosophe vit mal 
avec tous ses preceptes ; et le politique rempli de vues et de reflexions 
ne salt pas se gouverner." 

La BRUYfeRE 

THE controversy with Malebranche was Amauld's last 
great exploit, barring one other matter in which he 
allowed himself to be interested, and which contrary 
to his usual custom had the effect of pleasing the King. This 
was the quarrel between King James ii of England, guest 
of France, and William of Orange. Amauld wrote a book 
against the latter and in favour of fidelity to kings which 
so gratified Louis xiv that he not only allowed it to be printed 
in France, but had copies of it circulated abroad. ^ Arnauld's 
action did not, however, secure the return of its author to 
his native land. In 1685, he was rejoiced by the coming of 
two friends to join him : Pere Quesnel and Pere Du Guet, 
men who in the battle so nearly at its close were to be his 
disciples and successors. Both were priests of the Oratory ; 
both had been driven away from their institution by the 
change in its policy with regard to education brought about 
by the Chapter of 1684, which had ordered the adoption of 
a curriculum of studies contrary to sane and recent methods 
of thought — a curriculum in which Jansenius and Descartes 
were branded together as equally pernicious in their respective 
fields of theology and philosophy. 

For a long time Pere Quesnel had been in sympathy with 
the Jansenists. Having originally signed the Formulary 

1 Vie de Messire Antoine Amauld, vol. ii. p. 283. 
303 



304 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

at the time of the Peace of the Church, he afterwards sent a 
written Retraction to Port-Royal, and became more or less 
identified with Arnauld and the other Port-Royalists. ^ It 
was he, in fact, who had sent Arnauld word a few years before 
of the action of Malebranche. When, therefore, in 1678, 
M. de Harlai took hold of the Oratory, avowedly to *' purge it 
of Jansenism," Quesnel's future fate was only a matter of 
time, for six years later, at the definite division, he and Du 
Guet at once fled to Brussels. Here they were received with 
joy by the exile, but ill-health soon forced Du Guet to leave 
Brussels, and thus Quesnel, twenty years Amauld's junior, 
was left alone with his master. 

During the following nine years of their companionship, 
Quesnel, a true disciple, was very active. In analyzing his 
character, we find him in the opinion of contemporaries to 
have been on the whole serious, sincere, dogmatic, but without 
charm. Sainte-Beuve remarks that, while Quesnel participated 
in Amauld's moral virtues, he emphasized his faults. 2 
Like his chief, he was a prolific writer, and he especially 
excelled in the epistolary art. Gay and amusing, there was 
nothing morose or gloomy in his letters, and they showed 
his quality of always trying to look on the bright side of 
things for himself and his friends, counting his blessings, as 
it were, and forgetting to add up his miseries. 

Arnauld and Quesnel lived tranquilly at Brussels until 
1690, when, a dispute on some question or other arising in 
the Louvain University, the Governor of the Low Countries 
was obliged to ask Arnauld to retire from the Belgian capital 
for a while. Thus, accompanied by Pere Quesnel and one 
or two other friends, he set out once more on his wanderings. 
Shortly afterwards, France had one more gleam of hope 
that at last Arnauld would be allowed to return, for his nephew, 
M. de Pomponne, himself exiled ostensibly because the King 

1 Fenelon wrote to Pere Quesnel : " Yours is a terrible position, my Father, 
and I tremble the more for your sake the less you tremble for your own. 
Sooner than sign the Formulary you have fled to Holland, and the mass of 
your party, having signed it, thereby declares you a rebel against the Church. 
In return, you curse them for a crowd of cowardly perjured hypocrites, but 
they do not cease to admire you, call you their oracle and the Athanasius of 
our days, while you are forced to bless them as your children, as the only 
remnant faithful to your cause." (Viscount St. Cyres, Franpois de FSnelon, 

P- 233.) 

2 Port-Royal, v. p. 483. 




PASQUIER QUESNEL 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY N. FETAU 



i 



ARNAULD'S DEATH 30$ 

had not found him clever enough, but in reality, on account 
of his Jansenist connections, was now graciously recalled 
to the Court and his former duties as Secretary of State. 
But the re-established nephew's diplomatic endeavours to 
ensure his uncle's pardon were in vain. 

" Let him come back, if he will promise not to write any 
more,'' said the King, well knowing that Arnauld would write 
while life lasted." 

Therefore, returning after a year's absence to Brussels 
as the safest place, Arnauld concealed himself more closely 
than ever in an obscure part of the city, never stepping out 
of his little house except to take exercise in his garden sur- 
rounded by high walls. His life was thus sad enough, and 
Death, when it came, could not have been very unwelcome. 
The second Sunday in August 1694, Antoine Arnauld, called 
the Great, passed away tranquilly, surrounded by the friends 
of his foreign home, and attended by the pious Cure of 
St. Catherine in Brussels. 

Joseph de Maistre asserts that Arnauld died in the arms 
of the friend who, since Nicole's desertion, had been his faithfiil 
companion, Quesnel. One of the latter' s finest letters is that 
announcing the death of Arnauld : 

"He is in the bosom of the Truth which he has loved 
uniquely. He draws from the eternal fountain the Grace 
which he has so faithfully defended." 

The place of sepulchre was kept hidden for many years, but 
Arnauld' s heart was taken to Port-Royal des Champs by one 
of his friends, M. Ruth d'Ans. Santeuil, asked to write his 
epitaph, dilated on the pride of the foreign soil in possessing 
the bones of this man, adding that the Divine Love had 
transported his heart on wings of fire back to the place from 
whence nothing had ever been able to separate it.^ 

^ Boileau's epitaph is the most celebrated. The following is a rough 
translation : 

At the foot of this altar of clumsiest structure, 
In a vile bier pent up, minus pomp and splendour. 
Lies the most learned mortal that ever writ a line, 
Arnauld, who by Christ Himself informed in grace divine. 
Combating for the Church, has in the Church's bourne 
Suffered more than one outrage, by many curses torn, 
20 



3o6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

^ And, now after the death of the head of the Second Port- 
Royal, dominating his period even as St. Cyran and Arnauld 
did theirs, Pere Quesnel may be said to have been the centre 
of the Third and last generation. The argument of his book, 
called La Defense de V2glise Romaine, satirized by Joseph de 
Maistre as showing more than ever the extraordinary heresy of 
the Jansenists, was on the lines which post- Arnauld- J ansenists 
universally adopted : that of denying that in condemning the 
Five Propositions the Popes intended to condemn the doctrine 
of Grace. 

Clement xi had at first approved Quesnel's Reflexions 
Morales sur le Nouveau Testament, dedicated to the Cardinal 
de Noailles, but on its condemnation being demanded at 
Rome by the Jesuits, he retracted his approbation and 
censured it. It was on the strength of this action that 
Louis XIV afterward demanded that last and most famous 
silencer of Jansenism, the celebrated Constitution called 
Bulle Unigenitus} whereby one hundred and one propositions 
in Quesnel's work, most of which were absolutely inoffensive, 
were declared heretical. ^ No wonder, therefore, that Pere 
Quesnel was accused of being the author of the "largest 
theological apple of discord of the eighteenth century." 

Quesnel's excuse for his own unenviable reputation was 
a counter-accusation against his antagonists : he did as he 
did because they were what they were. Whatever Quesnel's 
excuse for his actions, his name has inevitably become linked 
with the last quarrels of Jansenism. This controversialist 
representative of Port-Royal was unfortunate in not having 
been connected with either the romantic, literary, poetic, 
or tender side of a movement which purposely ignored the 
gentler side of life, and to have had disassociated from his 
memory all the human element. It was also his fate, as 
that of his friend and master, Arnauld, to die in exile. Never 
returning to France, he died in Amsterdam in 1719. 

If in the Third Port-Royal Quesnel stood for the active 
and aggressive influence, Du Guet represented the moderating, 
gentle power. His was an altogether more lovable and attract- 
ive personality, the last of those tender priests who attached 
themselves to the stern practices and austerities of Port- 
Royal, standing by during exile and persecution without 

* Reinach, Orpheus, p. 502. * Made in 171 3. 



ARNAULD'S DEATH 307 

losing an atom of the grace and sweetness natural to^them. 
They were, in fact, Jansenist types, M. Hamon being the most 
prominent example of St. Frangois de Sales. 

Du Guet came too late into the fold of Port-Royal to actually 
live at Les Champs, and his connection was originally brought 
about solely through a correspondence with the distinguished 
friend of Madame de Longueville, Mile, de Vertus. It was 
before entering the Oratory, while making his noviciate in the 
Visitation at the time of the Peace of the Church, that at 
twenty years of age Du Guet became acquainted with Arnauld 
and Nicole. Ordained priest in 1677, three years later he had 
already become celebrated for his sermons, when ill-health inter- 
fered and caused a pause in his career, which in 1684 was 
entirely changed by the decision of the Chapter regarding 
education. It was not without much prayer and struggle 
that he finally decided to give up the Oratory altogether, 
and to leave Paris secretly with Quesnel. His whereabouts 
were unknown even to his own family. Had Port-Royal 
stiU been possible, he would have gone to the Desert — as 
it was, he closed his doors to all the world, and led a life of 
soHtude.i 

Through Du Guet's own letters we learn the details of this 
period, for during these years, which he called " dead,*' the 
voluntary recluse did not cease corresponding with some of the 
great ladies who had been under his spiritual direction : MUe. 
de Vertus, Madame de Fontpertuis, the Duchesse d'Epernon. 
He spread abroad " in secret on a thousand sides " the benefit 
of his letters and counsels, which also reached out to nuns of 
religious houses. These letters seem very characteristic of Du 
Guet, and yet it is impossible through them to divine much of 
one whose human interests were lost in the contemplation of a 
heavenly vision. What man indifferent to life, its joys, its iUs, 
its contrasts, could write in so playful a vein on details of the 
health of his correspondents or his own, sending recipes and 
advice, even allowing his ** dead " mind to rest on the best 
method of making tea, which beverage he considered more 
proper to the stomach of Madame des Rieux than coffee or 
chocolate ! 

At last, after five years, M. de Harlai removed his inter- 
diction, and Du Guet was able to come out of hiding and live 

1 He disappeared from Paris definitely in February 1685. 



3o8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

openly in Paris among his host of friends and admirers, pledging 
himself, however, to Pere La Chaise not to write on religious 
subjects. 

In his ordinary life a St. Frangois de Sales, Du Guet never- 
theless showed his Jansenist leanings in counsel, his exhorta- 
tions being sweetened by no tenderness or subterfuge, and 
strong with the strength of Truth. But with all his gifts, he 
never seemed to quite realize the greatest that was in him, for 
although Voltaire considered him one of the finest writers of 
the Jansenist party, not one of his thirty volumes is a real 
masterpiece. Perhaps his best claim to Port-Royal remem- 
brance was the influence he unconsciously exerted on penitents, 
for though rather more sweet than stern, it was seemingly very 
real and healthy. Du Guet has been called 

" the most amiable and distinguished of Port -Royal's first 
cousins, the last of a long line." ^ 

Although the place of Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, another 
friend and admirer of Arnauld, in the Port-Royal portrait 
gallery, is essentially that of the friend and companion of 
Racine, he still had a value there quite his own, and belonged 
to it especially through the latter part of his life, when Religion 
became to him something more than a theory. In his verses 
he practically avowed himself a " Molino-Jansenist," though 
never implicated in any of the quarrels on Grace. ^ 

Fifteenth child of a Master of Rolls, Nicolas Boileau had 
actually not only been early destined for the ecclesiastical 
profession, but tonsured. Disliking his course of theology at 
the Sorbonne, he became an advocate, and on losing his father 
gave up the law to live on a small patrimony and devote himself 
to letters. One day shortly after the Peace of the Church, 
President Lamoignon invited several persons to dine with him 
at Auteuil, and at this dinner-table Boileau met Arnauld and 
Nicole for the first time. He was greatly prepossessed in 
favour of Arnauld as the adversary of the False in theology 
and the author of the Frequent Communion, while on his part 
Arnauld was attracted to Despreaux as the man who had pre- 



1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 514. 

2 "A peine du limon ou le vice m'engage, 

J'arrache un pied timide, et sors en m'agitant, 
Que I'autre m'y reporte, et s'embourbe a I'instant." 

Epitre III. a M. Arnauld. 



4 



ARNAULD'S DEATH 309 

vented Racine from publishing his second letter. Without 
understanding very much of poetry, Arnauld yet found Boileau 
not only to possess all the qualities that a poet should have, 
but to be besides a man of fine mind and morals. The fruit 
of this meeting was the famous Arret Burlesque} a satire on 
the quarrel of Arnauld versus the University in its battle 
against the teaching of anything except on the old traditional 
lines. On the one side, Aristotle and the University ; on the 
other, Arnauld and Descartes. 

Boileau's next attention to Arnauld was his Third Epistle 
apropos of the Perpetuity of the Faith, and called Sur la 
Mauvaise Honte. Mauvaise Honte, or shyness, the poet 
considered as the source of all vice, all crime. The story goes 
that the author of the Third Epistle was non-Jansenist enough 
to rise very late, and that he was in bed one morning when he 
recited his poem to Arnauld, who had come to see him at 
rather an early hour. As rapidly and with fine fervour Boileau 
was pouring forth his smoothly flowing lines, Arnauld became 
more and more absorbed and excited : at last, as the poet 
delivered these words with the proper expression : 

" Avant qu'a nos erreurs le Ciel nous abandonne, 
Profitons de rinstant que de grace il nous donne, 
Hatons-nous, le temps fuit, et nous traine avec soi : 
Le moment ou je parle est deja loin de moi ! " 

rising abruptly from his seat, the Doctor rushed three or four 
times round the room as if to catch the fleeting moment ! ^ 

Boileau being too infirm in his later years to go to Court, 
Racine used to read his fellow-Historian's satires to the King. 
Among others, he bravely read aloud Boileau's epitaph on the 
Grand Arnauld, and the King must have winced to hear the 
despised Jansenist called by his own officer, " The most learned 
mortal who has ever written." 

In his last writings, Boileau became more and more 
Jansenistic. He inveighed against the opera and novels, and 
in his Satire des Femmes he showed the bias of the orphan who 

^ Composed in August 1671. 

2 Rough translation : 

Ere Heaven for our errors us coldly forsake. 
Come profit by the instant which in grace it lets us take. 
Oh, hasten on ! Time flies, and drags us in its flight : 
This moment as I speak already fades from sight. 



310 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

has never known its mother, and who despises the sex because 
he is ignorant of it. Arnauld, however, defended this satire, 
and, in fact, held the same views. ^ 

The Twelfth Epitre, called " Sur T Amour de Dieu " (On the 
Love of God), was said to be a direct outcome of Pascal's 
Tenth Provincial, and the most thoroughly Jansenistic of 
all Boileau's poems. It was a protest against the Casuistic 
idea of one's duty to God, an author of the sect having 
announced the fact that a Christian is not obliged to love God. 

This poem brought Boileau much attention, and occasioned 
a great many good stories at his expense, which the poet 
himself was only too ready to recount. 

" Racine asked my gardener one day," he related, *' if 
there were always so many people coming to see me." 

" Yes, sir," replied the gardener, " it is the Love of God 
which brings them all." ^ 

It was said the destruction of Port-Royal struck a knife 
into Boileau's heart, for to the disillusioned satirist everything 
seemed gone, even good taste and poetry, ^ and there was 
nothing left to live for. At last, the 17th March 171 1, he 
gave up the struggle, and passed away in the house of his 
Confessor in the cloister of Notre-Dame. 

And thus, leaving a world for which he had lost his relish, 
he might have exclaimed in the words of his First Satire, 
published over fifty years before : 

" Pour moi qu'en sante meme, un autre monde 6tonne 
Qui crois Fame immortelle, et que c'est Dieu qui tonne, 
II vaut mieux pour jamais me bannir de ce lieu. 
Je me retire done. Adieu, Paris, adieu 1 " 

^ See Amauld's letter to Perrault. Boileau was most grateful to Arnauld, 
and expressed his admiration for this "grand personage " everywhere and to 
everybody. 

2 Boileau's Epitre XI. is addressed to this gardener. 

* In a letter to M. Maucroix written six years before his death, Boileau 
said : " Que j'aurais le plaisir de vous embrasser et a deposer entre vos mains 
les chagrins que me donne tons les jours le mauvais gout de la plupart de 
nos 6crivains modernes ! " 



CHAPTER VI 

THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL— PASCAL 
AND RACINE : LES PENStES AND ATHALIE 

" Je blame egalement et ceux qui prennent parti de louer rhomme, et 
ceux qui le blamer, et ceux qui prennent de se divertir : et je ne puis approuver 
que ceux qui cherchent en gSmissant." 

Pens&es 
" Ou sont les traits que tu lances. 
Grand Dieu, dans ton juste courroux ? 
N'est-tu plus le Dieu jaloux ? 
N'est-tu plus le Dieu des vengeances ? " 

Athalie 

BEFORE telling the sad story of Port-Royal's downfall 
and destruction, it would seem well to fortify our 
hearts by a thought of her glory. But this is a subject 
which has caused much discussion, and on which there are 
as many different opinions as writers on the subject : from 
Gerbier, who called Port-Royal " the nursery of great men *' ; ^ 
Victor Cousin, who asserted it to be 

" perhaps the place of all the world which has enclosed in the 
smallest space the greatest amount of virtue and genius, in the 
persons of admirable men and women worthy of them " ; ^ 

to the modern M. Reinach, who asserts that the great figures 
we have tried to describe 

" still command respect by the intensity of their moral life, 
the gravity of their thought, their tranquil courage. . . . 
These Messieurs of Port -Royal dominated the baseness and 
corruption of their time." ^ 

^ L'Abbe Gr6goire. Les Ruines de Port-Royal des Champs, p. no. 

2 Du Vrai du Beau et du Bien, p. 234. 

3 Orpheus, Histoire ginlrale des Religions, p. 500. 

311 



312 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Bringing the matter down to a more personal and yet more 
impersonal point of view, it has been disputed as to whether 
the real glory of Port-Royal lay in Pascal or Racine — the 
Pensees or Athalie. Morally and literarily, it would seem 
to lie in both these men as represented in their works. 
Pascal and Racine — these are the names that stand out 
life-size in the picture of Port-Royal, with Mere Angelique, 
St. Cyran, and Jansenius. 

It was said to be the tremendous impression made upon 
Pascal by the Miracle of the Sacred Thorn which changed 
his rallying mood of the Provincials into a deeper and more 
highly religious strata, resulting in those remarkable fragments 
called the Pensees. As any rate, in the middle of the Nine- 
teenth Letter, it appears that the attention of the writer 
was suddenly diverted from the subject of the Casuists and 
their subtleties to a broader field. His own arguments 
had shown him that the world needed an Apology for Religion 
itself — a conclusive demonstration of the true meaning of 
the word.^ Therefore, with his usual promptitude, Pascal 
immediately put down the half-finished argument, and began 
to think out a work which should be a thousand times greater 
and nobler than the writing still fresh from his pen. Like 
aU genius, he had progressed through himself, and throwing 
off the ladders by which he had climbed from one plane to 
another, he now stood on the one which was to prove his 
last earthly progression. 

For several months he wrote nothing, but spent his time 
in meditation, trusting to his wonderful memory to guard 
the thoughts which occurred to his brooding mind. In the 
meantime, his friends of Port-Royal were quite aware that 
something was stirring in his brain, and with impatience 
they awaited the result. Finally, unable longer to control 
their eager curiosity, they implored Pascal to divulge the 
scheme of his proposed treatise.^ To accede to their desire, 
Pascal accordingly began with the greatest care to draw up 
the heads of a discourse which he planned to deliver on a 
certain day. The lecture took place, Sainte-Beuve estimates, 
any time between 1657 ^^^ 1659, probably in 1658. It 
lasted over two hours, and at its close, Etienne Perier tells us,^ 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, iii. p. 312. 

2 Preface to the Pensees. ^ Ibid. 



THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL 313 

those persons who listened to Pascal's words — and his 
hearers were all learned in the matter discussed — avowed 
they had never heard anything more beautiful, stronger, 
more touching, or more convincing. There is no record as 
to who these friends were, but Sainte-Beuve is the authority 
for a strong conjecture that the audience consisted of the 
choicest souls of Port-Royal, and also that it took place at 
Port-Royal de Paris itself. In his Preface to the Pensees, 
Etienne Perier says that Pascal's explanation of the plan of 
his great work was made 

'* in the presence and at the prayer of a considerable number 
of his friends." 

Here the poet-philosopher revealed his ideal to be 
demonstration of the possibility of proving the reality of the 
Christian religion. This plan was tremendously ambitious, 
embracing as it did the whole gamut of human knowledge. 
In exposing it to his friends, Pascal began by portraying a 
man who had always lived in a general ignorance and in- 
difference, especially with regard to his own nature. Then, 
as the man suddenly awakened to an observation of himself 
in the frame of his surroundings, taking him by the hand, 
as it were, like Mephistopheles Faust, he showed him the 
world as it really is, with all its grandeur and its baseness. 
By this process the man's mind was gradually able to 
weigh the contrary evidences of good and evil, until at 
last he came to complete realization of the great truths of 
religion. 

Etienne Perier, who was the first to make a summary 
of this plan from Pascal's conversation with his friends, 
explains that his uncle did not endeavour to prove the existence 
of God by geometrical demonstrations founded on evident 
principles, nor by metaphysical reasonings, nor by coincidences 
of Nature, but simply by moral proofs which appeal more 
nearly to the heart than to the mind. His reason for this 
method was a conviction that the vicious passions and attach- 
ments which corrupt the heart and the will are the greatest 
obstacles to faith. 

It is only of comparatively recent years ^ that the Pensees 
have been given to us in their true and unmutilated form. 

1 In the editions made by MM. Faugere and Havet in 1844. 



314 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

The reason for this lies first of all in the very fragmentary 
and unclassified state in which Pascal left these precious 
notes. After his death, the persecution of the Solitaires 
and nuns made the publication of any of the works of the 
Jansenists impossible. Six years later, when the Peace of 
the Church was being arranged, Pascal's friends began to 
collaborate with his family, the P^riers, for the arrangement 
of his scattered Thoughts, the Due de Roannes, his steadfast 
friend, being prime mover in the enterprise. A committee, 
consisting of Arnauld, Nicole, De TreviUe, Du Bois, and De 
la Chaise, met to perform the revision and collocation of this 
great work — Pascal's nephew, now a young man of twenty- 
six, very well informed and of firm character, representing 
the interests of his family. 

Primarily, it was difficult to decide what course to pursue 
in the grouping of the notes. The easiest manner would 
have been to print them off just as they were, but this might 
have destroyed the effect it was hoped they would produce — 
some of them being very imperfect and only sketches of an 
idea. Another method discussed was to explain the more 
obscure thoughts, and to supply the necessary thread to the 
fragments in hand. This method, while apparently the most 
satisfactory, proved difficult of execution. 

To avoid the disadvantage of both methods of arrange- 
ment proposed, therefore, Pascal's friends decided to cull 
out from among the scattered notes only those which seemed 
the clearest and most finished, and, putting them only in 
sequence, to give them as they were without change or addition. 

The difficulties of revision were very great, so it was decided 
that the Due de Roannes, who, as Pascal's most intimate 
friend, seemed best suited to divine the sense and intention 
of each fragment, should, together with Etienne Perier, first 
classify the material, after which the rest of the committee 
might pass judgment on the result. Although the Duke 
added nothing to Pascal's thoughts, he curtailed a great 
deal, and when this first edition appeared it was a mutila- 
tion, as were all following attempts until 1842, when M. 
Victor Cousin issued a new and faithful transcript. Sainte- 
Beuve rather contests M. Cousin's condemnation of the Port- 
Royal edition, himself excusing its defects on the ground 
that Arnauld, Nicole, and De Saci had sufficient temptation, 



THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL 315 

being just issued from prison and exile, to make as good a 
case for Jansenism as possible out of Pascal's ideas on religion. 
This they did too in all reverence, and with as much exactitude 
as was possible at the time. 

Following in M. Cousin's footsteps, M. Faugere, and lastly 
M. Havet, brought out still more perfect editions, their ideal 
being to give back to the original fragments their first signifi- 
cance, by separating them from a mass of other matter which 
had been mixed with them, and which, though by Pascal, did 
not belong to the original plan of the Pensees. The basis of 
their work was to consider the original MS. as the only 
authentic text. But even in the Port-Royal edition, mutilated 
as later critics may have thought it, the world felt the power, 
force, and sincerity and insight of the writer. As Madame de 
la Fayette remarked : 

" It is a bad sign for those who do not enjoy this book." 

And in the heart of Pascal's Pensees, Port-Royal was deeply 
rooted. That in the Preface written by Etienne Perier for 
the family, there was no mention of Port-Royal, and that it 
was merely stated that Pascal had retired to the country, was 
due the ever-recurring fear of ecclesiastical and papal con- 
demnation. Pascal's writings prove incontestably his true 
connection with Port-Royal. 

Though apparently so unlike, both in mind and genius, 
Pascal and Racine had several points of resemblance. Both 
had a human idea of religion ; for both it meant Jesus Christ ; 
and to both it was also Grace. To Pascal, Grace was an 
immense ocean out of which each man was given to drink as 
much or as little as Providence designed. 

To Racine, Grace meant 

" The Justice of God, which must be enormous like His 
mercy, for justice toward the reproved is less immense and 
would shock less than mercy toward the elect.'* 

Following up this idea, in his Athalie Racine shows that the 
world is submissive to the incessant action of a Just God, 
whose wisdom, regulating everything from the beginning, 
governs all created beings. In Pascal, we have the perfection 
of prose ; in Racine, the perfection of poetry. They were 
also alike in their manner of arriving at this perfection of style, 
but while this method was original with Pascal, Racine had 



3i6 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

learned it from Boileau, who, adopting it himself, endeavoured 
to teach it to his three friends, Racine, Moliere,and La Fontaine.^ 

The history of Athalie is very different from that of Esther. 
Esther, after all, was but the amusement of children, whereas 
Racine's last play was the summing up of his life's ideals. As 
such it had to stand '* the slings and darts of outrageous 
fortune," for although it was again at the request of Madame 
de Maintenon that Racine once more took up his laid-down 
pen, when, two years after the first production of Esther, this 
new Biblical creation was finished, times had changed. Both 
Madame de Maintenon and the King had become more pious 
and influenced by public opinion. Why, said the busybodies, 
should you allow young girls at St. Cyr to be thus exposed on 
the stage before the whole Court ? Intimidated by these 
whispered criticisms of her piety, Madame de Maintenon gave 
way to the extent of never having Athalie played publicly. 
But, for her and the King, Racine had his masterpiece acted 
in a small room at St. Cyr by the Blues, or oldest pupils, alone. 
On this occasion the girls were in their everyday costumes, 
without jewels or adornment of any kind, and minus a stage. 
Two or three times afterward the piece was played in the same 
manner by these young women at Versailles. Outside this small 
circle, Athalie was little spoken of, and made no excitement of 
any kind. When it was printed it was subjected to the disdain 
of all the world, and only later its intrinsic value was recognized. ^ 

Arnauld's criticism gave preference to Esther, and for this 
he said he had many reasons, contenting himself with the one 
remark that in Esther he found many more very edifying 
things capable of inspiring piety. ^ In this opinion he was 
joined by the exiled Jansenists, who, like Arnauld, remained 
loyal to Racine's first Biblical inspiration as portraying more 

* " Mais mon esprit, tremblant sur le choix de ses mots 

N'en dira jamais un, s'il ne tombe a propos, 

Et ne saurait souffrir qu'une phrase insipide 

Vienne a la fin d'un vers rempli la place vide. 

Ainsi recommencant un ouvrage vingt fois 

Si j'ecris quatre mots, j'en effacerai trois" (Boileau, Satire III.). 
Just before his death, Racine made a last sacrifice of his art to God by throwing 
a copy of his works, on which he had corrected with his own hand the expres- 
sions and rhymes that did not satisfy him, into the fire. He feared to have 
anything too perfect, wherein he might retain a grain of self-complacence. 

2 Theophile de la Vallee, Histoire de St. Cyr, p, 98. 

3 Letter to the Landgraf of Hesse-Rheinfels, 13th March 1689. 



THE LITERARY GLORY OF PORT-ROYAL 317 

aptly, perhaps, their own situation. They did not reaHze the 
greater compliment to Port-Royal in this elder daughter of 
JRacine, which could have been created only by a poet pro- 
foundly impregnated with the spirit of the monastery — its 
moral grandeiu:, its stoicism, its patience under persecution. 
It was said that Racine had written Esther for Madame de 
Maintenon, but Athalie for himself, and if his younger child, 
the latter was certainly his favomite. 

In this case, posterity has justified the opinion of the few, 
for from Voltaire, who declared that France was glorified in 
Athalie, and that it was the masterpiece not only of the French 
theatre and of poetry, but of the human mind, to Sainte- 
Beuve, who classed it as one of the three highest monuments of 
Christian art in the seventeenth century, there has since 
Racine's day been but one opinion as to the literary and 
spiritual significance of this play.^ 

Moreover, that it belonged to Port-Royal by right of inspira- 
tion, there can be no doubt. The affinity is graphically 
described by an anonymous correspondent of Sainte-Beuve's, 
who says : 

" It seems to me that one may say also that the glory of 
Port -Royal is Athalie ; for Athalie is virtue, God, Moses, 
Jacob, Abraham, all the Hebrew genius. . . . Delicacy united 
to faith — this is the character of Port -Royal. . . . The genius 
of Racine owes to Port-Royal that holy flame and that 
elevation which he has not known except in Athalie." 2 

This salient quality of an unsurpassable moral grandeur, 
Athalie possesses in common with those " grand ruins," the 
Pensees. 

Thus, as the outward wonder and glory of Port-Royal, it 
is fitting that in this day and generation the mortal remains 
of its two greatest literary disciples should lie almost 
side by side. St. fitienne du Mont in Paris is the happy 
custodian of the memory of both ; and, in a dark corner of 
the same church, their epitaphs may be read side by side.^ 

^ " Le temps a venge I'auteur," said Voltaire, "mais ce grand homme est 
mort sans jouir du succes de son plus admirable cuvrage." 

2 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 151. 

* In his novel called L'Histoire Comique, Anatole France relates that after 
the destruction of the Abbey and violation of sepulchres, while the body of 
Jean Racine was buried at St. Etienne du Mont without honours, the tomb- 
stone with Boileau's epitaph was used as a flagstone in the choir of the httle 



3i8 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Buried as he had desired, jat the feet of M. Hamon at Port- 
Royal des Champs, on the destruction of the monastery Racine's 
body was exhumed and taken to St. fitienne du Mont, as the 
parish of Madame Racine, his wife. His last poetic words 
were on Charity : 

" En vain, je parlerais le langage des Anges 
En vain, mon Dieu, de tes louanges, 
Je remplirois tout I'univers : 
Sans amour, ma gloire n'egale 
Que la gloire de la cymbale 
Qui d'un vain bruit frappe les airs." ^ 

Let him who will take away from Port-Royal these two 
great men — for those who try to look reverently and philo- 
sophically at human life and its mysteries, Racine and Pascal 
will ever represent an intrinsic and precious part of its influence. 

Church of Magny. Here it was found in 1808, broken in six pieces, and the 
name of Racine effaced by the boots of the peasants. It was at that time 
repaired and placed in the chapel at St. Etienne. 
1 Rough translation — 

In vain I would speak with the tongue of angels, 

In vain, my God, Thy praises tell 

Throughout the Universe so vast. 

Without love, my pride would fall 

Like the pomp of the cymbal. 

As with empty din it strikes the blast. 



CHAPTER VII 

LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION, AND 
THE PASSING OF PORT-ROYAL 

" Mourir a tout et attendre tout ; voil^ ce que nous avons a faire " 

Motto of Mere Angelique 

ONE of the most impressive scenes of the dying Port- 
Royal was the funeral of M. de Saci, whom we 
left at the moment of his release from the Bastille 
being graciously received by Louis xiv. From that time, 
he had tried to forget his prison experience, saying to his 
friend Fontaine : 

'* Let us not imitate those who, returning from a long 
journey, can afterwards speak to the whole world of nothing 
but what they have seen." ^ 

The fifteen years following the Peace of the Church which pre- 
ceded his death, were passed by De Saci either at Pomponne, 
Port-Royal des Champs, or at Paris in directing souls under 
his care, or in preparing the translation of the Bible, of which 
the New Testament of Mons was but the first part, and the 
bulk of which he had made in prison. During these years, the 
whole spiritual life of Port-Royal — not the political — revolved 
around this brother of Antoine Le Maitre. As Sainte-Beuve 
said : 

" He was the entrance gate for those outside, the lobby and 
the lamp inside." ^ 

Finally, on the resumption of the persecution, he was 

obliged definitely to retire to Pomponne, and there in 

January 1684, in the midst of uninterrupted spiritual 

^ Mimoiresy ii. pp. 520-540. ^ Port-Royal, ii. p. 356. 

319 



320 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

ministrations, he died, aged seventy-one, murmuring only 

the words : 

*' O blessed Purgatory ! " 

In his will, he had asked to be buried at Port-Royal des 
Champs, but at the moment this was a difficult request to 
fulfil, the winter being very extreme, and secrecy a con- 
dition. However, his friends gladly accepted the task. And 
it is said that the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres had prepared 
a suite of two hundred persons carrying torches to receive 
the remains of the revered priest as they passed through 
Paris, but as it was thought dangerous to allow such a cortege, 
his body was taken secretly to St. Jacques du Haut Pas 
between six and seven in the evening. On arriving at St. 
Jacques, however, terror so seized the friends lest some obstacle 
or order should interfere with the journey to Port-Royal 
the next day, they decided to start that very night. So, 
mounting into carriages, the faithful mourners departed with 
their burden at eleven o'clock, in the deep snow, and escorted 
by boys holding torches. To the great astonishment of the 
nuns, who did not expect the funeral cortege till the next 
evening, the bearers of the last remains of De Saci arrived 
at the monastery at five o'clock in the early morning. At 
once, a hundred nuns made ready to do him honour, 

" shining more with charity than the candles they carried in 
their hands." 

The story of the ceremony of interment is touchingly told 
by Fontaine, De Saci's devoted friend : of how they robed 
him in his ecclesiastical vestments, of the chanting of the 
Psalms, the sprinkling with holy water, the incense — all the 
details of the ways in which piety and love could honour its 
dead. And when they had carried him to his last resting- 
place in the cemetery, each nun, after a farewell glance, 
imprinted a holy kiss on the dead face of the priest whom 
for so many years she had loved and revered. 

Mere Angelique de St. Jean^ and Arnauld de Luzanci 

^ It seems that the death of this her beloved uncle and Confessor was a 
blow from which Mere AngeUque de St. Jean never rallied. She died three 
weeks later, repeating the words of the Song of Solomon : "I charge you, 
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake my love, till he 
please." See Fontaine, Mimoires, ii. p. 536. 



LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 321 

both quickly followed their beloved uncle, and the poor 
Fontaine was left behind, lamenting : 

" I avow,'* he cried, '' that in seeing this brother and sister 
stricken to death by that of M. de Saci, I should blush — I who 
believed myself to have always loved him — not to follow him 
like them, and I retiurn to despair in comparing these two 
persons, whose love has been stronger than death, to myself 
who have loved so little." ^ 

Meantime at Port-Royal many changes were taking place. 
In 1694, M. de Harlai the Archbishop passed away, and 
shortly afterward M. de Noailles, Bishop of Chalons and 
Marne, was appointed his successor. A very different char- 
acter from his predecessor, the new Archbishop was pious, 
sincere, and simple, of pure morals and many virtues, but 
gifted with neither policy nor address. Although his desire 
was to be just and impartial, it was unfortunate that in follow- 
ing out this wish he pleased no one. Fenelon said he had 
a short and confused mind, and Sainte-Beuve remarks that 

" he passed his life in giving the Jansenists vain hopes which 
ruined them, and the Jesuits forced satisfactions which did 
not satisfy them." ^ 

On his first visit to Port-Royal two years after his accession, 
M. de Noailles seemed very satisfied with the state of things 
there. 

" He entered the monastery," said Du Fosse, " with a 
burning lamp in one hand and the balances of Justice in the 
other, in order to see everything and to weigh everything 
according to the measures of the Sanctuary." ^ 

Justice and Charity both satisfied, the Archbishop left with 
his tongue full of praises for the holy place. The King was, 
however, implacable, and in 1699, hearing that the Countess of 
Grammont had made a retreat at Port -Royal des Champs, 
he had her name crossed off the list of ladies who were to 
accompany him to Marly. 

" If one goes to Port-Royal," he said, " one should not 
go to Marly." * 

Peace was eventually made for Madame de Grammont, but 
not for Port-Royal. 

^ Mimoires, ii. p. 540. ^ Port-Royal, vi. p. 163. 

3 Mimoires, ii, p. 200. * St. Simon Memoives (Ed. Boislisle), ii, p, 14. 

21 



322 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

f^- Indeed, the last scene of the drama was now preparing, 
again the matter of the Letter of the Law. It began (in 1701) 
with a singular affair called " the Case of Conscience," or a 
consultation held among ecclesiastics as to the submission 
one should yield with regard to the Constitutions of the Popes 
against Jansenism. This famous discussion was, alas ! nothing 
more nor less than a renaissance of the old question of fait 
and droit, the author of the revival being, strange to say, 
a Jansenist, M. Eustace, Confessor at Port-Royal des Champs. 
This well-meaning, but badly advised priest busied himself 
in trying to get Doctors of the Sorbonne to sign the Consulta- 
tion, and forty did so, only one refusing. A year afterward, 
the Consultation was printed, and the battle began by the 
matter being taken to Rome, where it was condemned by 
Clement xi. On this, the Cardinal de Naoilles issued a Mande- 
ment censuring the Consultation as reviving quarrels and 
favouring equivocal quibbles. Soon all the Doctors of the 
Sorbonne revoked their signature, and the one man who had 
not signed, exiled by the King, prudently took flight and 
joined Pere Quesnel in Brussels. The next year, in pursuance 
of a rigorous policy adopted in foreign countries, Pere Quesnel 
was discovered by the higher ecclesiastical authority, and 
arrested at Brussels by the order of the King of Spain, and 
thrown into the prison of that town. Here his papers and 
correspondence were seized. Sent to Paris, and delivered 
over to the Jesuits, these documents made a tremendous stir. 
Showing a great box of them, Pere La Chaise exclaimed in 
triumph : 

'* Here we have all the mysteries of the iniquity of Pere 
Quesnel ! All the papers, memoirs, letters, rough drafts, 
even to their cipher and jargon, for more than forty years. 
And it is astonishing how much there is in it of things against 
the King and the State." ^ 

And truly these papers revealed a good deal of secret activity 
among the Jansenists — enough, it was said, to keep Madame 
de Maintenon busy all her evenings for ten years getting 
them in condition for the King to read. Many people were 
compromised, many imprisoned, on this evidence. 

At Port-Royal des Champs the theological struggle had 

1 Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, v. p. 178. 



LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 323 

recommenced in lyoG^by the sending to the nuns of a Mande- 
ment accompanied by a Bulle from Rome, which they were 
requested to sign. Again the heroic sisters refused, and when 
the Grand Vicar, M. Gilberte, came to remonstrate with 
these late seventeenth century nuns, he received the same 
answer as that formerly given by the courageous Mere Angel- 
ique : 

" But must we give up our consciences ? " 

They were sustained in their stand by Pere Quesnel, who by 
this time had escaped from his prison, and was in hiding in 
Holland. The word of their oracle was enough : Pere 
Quesnel bade them hold firm, so in spite of other and better 
counsel, the misguided women persisted in their refusal. 

From the beginning of persecution, all material connection 
between the sister monasteries at the Champs and Paris 
had been prohibited. In 1661, when the twelve nuns 
had been carried away into captivity and the Sisters of the 
Visitation had replaced them, the nucleus of quite a new 
institution had been formed of the ten sisters who by un- 
conditional signature of the Formulary had escaped captivity, 
and under the protection of the Archbishop these nuns were 
then allowed to choose a new Abbess from among their own 
number — such Abbess having sole right over all property 
at Port-Royal de Paris. 

Even though at the Peace of the Church the nuns at the 
Champs were declared innocent, and solemnly re-established 
in their rights, these rights only applied to Les Champs, 
and no re-union was effected. On the contrary, a Decree 
of Council, dated 1669, formally separated the two houses for 
ever, the property being divided. Paris had a perpetual 
Abbess nominated by the King, while at the Champs the 
office was still elective every three years. A third of the 
property in the country was given to the Paris house. As, in 
addition to this third, Port-Royal de Paris also kept its exterior 
sources of revenue, it should have been well satisfied with 
the division. But greedy of the property amassed by the 
provident country house, the Paris sisters werewicked enough 
to try to possess themselves of the estate in the country. 
At their instigation, agents were driven away and imprisoned, 
and the revenue of farms diverted to their use. The nuns 



324 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

of the Champs had to subsist as best they could, on the gifts 
of friends and the product of the books of Ces Messieurs. 
One day the Abbess of Port-Royal de Paris gave a ball in 
the Parloir of the monastery. Happening to come in, even 
the patron Archbishop, the Cardinal de Noailles, saw the 
incongruity, and remarked : 

"It is not just that Port -Royal de Paris should dance 
while Port -Royal des Champs pays the fiddles." ^ 

Thus, while at Port-Royal des Champs the ancient piety 
and spirit still reigned even in the midst of persecution and 
ignominy, at Port-Royal de Paris scandalous corruption 
quickly but surely crept in to undermine the old associations 
and traditions. Soon, through intrigue, an irreparable chasm 
yawned between the two formerly so closely-allied institutions, 
and now the Paris sisters were to compass the final destruction 
of those whom they should have cherished, but whom they 
hated and envied. 

On the refusal of the nuns at Les Champs to sign the 
Mandement of Rome, those of Paris at once petitioned the 
King to revoke the ancient division of goods, to suppress Port- 
Royal des Champs altogether, and to unite its property to 
theirs. Influence being brought to bear to this end, on the 
22nd November 1707, an Ordinance of the King consummated 
the unholy desire of Port-Royal de Paris. The goods of the 
Champs were seized, and from the poor nuns even their daily 
bread was taken away — not only that for their bodily wants, 
but the spiritual food of the Holy Eucharist denied them as 
well. 

In vain the nuns protested by all sorts of requests and 
letters. On the 19th December 1708, the Bulle from Rome 
for the destruction of Port-Royal des Champs was registered 
in Parliament, and in July 1709 M. de Noailles gave his decree 
for its extinction, the union of its goods with that of Port- 
Royal de Paris. On the 7th August this decree was read to 
the nuns of Port-Royal. 

Without the gates of Port-Royal des Champs, as without the 
gates of the Jerusalem of the vision-seeing prophet of old, 
the autumn of 1709, there thus lay in wait, 

•' Dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, 
and idolaters." 

^ Racine, Abr^gS, p. 2i7» 



LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 325 

The " grapes of iniquity " were at last fuUy ripe — it was 
time for the sharp sickle of God to be thurst in, time for the 
harvest to be gathered. 

When on the first day of October 1709, following upon the 
Decree of the Archbishop that Port-Royal des Champs should 
be sacrificed and its goods given over to the Paris institution, 
Madame de Chateau Renaud, Abbess of Port-Royal de Paris, 
appeared before the Grating of the Parloir of the Abbey des 
Champs and demanded admittance in the name of the Arch- 
bishop, the face of a simple Prioress confronted her at the 
wicket. Three years before, on being apprised of the death of 
Mere Elizabeth de Sainte Anne Boulard,^ and asked to allow 
the usual election, M. de Noailles had replied that there would 
be no need for another. Thus the few remaining adherents of 
the Champs — a parcel of timid religieuses only twenty-two in 
number — had since the last Abbess's death been under the 
guidance of Mere Anastasie du Mesnil, the Prioress appointed 
by Mere Boulard on her deathbed. Imbued with the historic 
spirit of Port-Royal, this courageous nun replied to the 
demand of the haughty Paris dame, accompanied by two 
nuns and two notaries, that in the name of the community 
she protested against the claim of Port-Royal de Paris, and 
that the doors of the Cloister would not be opened to enemies 
of the Abbey. 2 

At this, without protest, Madame de Chateau Renaud 
quietly entered the Church, ordered the great bell of the 
Monastery rung, and then proceeded, while her notaries took 
documentary note of her actions, to touch the altar and various 
parts of the sanctuary in legal token of her seizure of the Abbey. 
Imagine the desolation of the poor frightened nuns as their 
great bell tolled out, and, impelled by the spitefulness of the 
rival Abbess's attendants, continued to sound its lament 
with insistent force even after Madame de Chateau Renaud had 
finished her investiture of the Church. The minutes passed, 
the tones of the bell grew ever louder, imtil, goaded to action. 



1 It is curious to note that the name of the last Abbess of Port-Royal 
before the reform of Mdre Angelique was the same (Boulehart), though spelled 
differently. 

2 The folio-wing description is taken from Memoir es sur la Destruction de 
Port-Royal, by Fouillot, containing the Relation of Madame de Chateau Renaud, 
and other Memoires of the time. 



326 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

one of the servants of the monastery climbed into the bell 
tower, and cut the rope of the ancient signal-giver ! 

On finishing her investiture, Madame de Chateau Renaud 
mounted the hill behind to Les Granges, where she went 
through a similar form. Eating there a good dinner, she then 
proceeded to the neighbouring St. Cyr, where next morning 
she reported to Madame de Maintenon all that had happened. 

After listening with great attention and patience for over 
an hour, 

" Tell me," said Madame de Maintenon, " did you notice 
in the Church of Port -Royal des Champs the unction it is said 
to possess ? " 

" I replied," said Madame de Chateau Renaud afterward, 
" that I was not good enough to have these sentiments, and 
I assured her that I had felt none in particular, . . . that I 
might have the honour to say without flattery that I had 
found in St. Cyr veritably that unction, etc. etc." 

As the Gate of Port-Royal des Champs finally closed upon 
Madame de Chateau Renaud, the poor nuns left behind in 
quivering fear of further events, were as usual overwhelmed 
with presages of disaster, and these were crowned one day 
when the lamps of the dormitory were found extinguished — 
a thing which had never before occurred. That very night 
(the 28th October) a regiment of soldiers quietly surrounded 
the Abbey in the pouring rain, investing the woods and heights 
of the Valley of the Yvette as if making ready for the siege of a 
garrisoned town. In the early morning the unconscious nuns 
were going through their usual orisons when at seven o'clock 
the Prioress was notified that a file of carriages was approaching 
the monastery, and that M. d'Argenson, Prefect of PoHce, 
demanded to speak with her. 

On being received in the Parloir, the King's Officer ex- 
plained that he had an order to search the interior of the 
monastery, and requested the opening of the doors. Without 
demur, the Prioress delivered over to him her keys, and while 
the house was being searched for incriminating books and 
papers, she led her nuns to service in the Church, saying : 

*' This is still another visit to our house ; I do not know 
the consequences of it, but we must always rest in the arms 
of the mercy of God, who knows our needs better than we do 
ourselves." 



LAST STRUGGLE AGAINST PERSECUTION 327 

After service, the community being assembled, M. d'Argenson 
announced that in three hours their dispersion into various 
convents was to take place, the carriages being there for that 
purpose. 

" Monseigneur," said the Prioress, " we are quite ready to 
obey ; half an hour is more than sufficient for us to say a 
last adieu, and to take with us a bre\aary, a Bible, and our 
Constitutions." 

Upon this, embracing, the nuns consoled each other for their 
separation by the thought that if united to God, Port-Royal 
might be found everywhere. ^ By five o'clock that night 
the monastery was deserted by the nuns, the Prioress being 
the last to leave. Afterward they confessed that they had 
found in the agents of the law more true commiseration and 
sympathy than had been shown them by ecclesiastics sent to 
torture and vex them. For, touched with pity for these gentle 
and pious women, the youngest of whom was fifty, M. d' Argenson 
and his agents conducted them to the carriages, seeing that they 
were well treated by their escorts, and allowing them as much 
liberty as was compatible with the circumstances. 

When in rendering an account of the affair, M. d'Argenson 
reported to the King that he was surprised at the constancy 
of these nuns, and especially at their perfect obedience, the 
King's only reply was that he was content with their obedience, 
but sorry that they were not of his religion. 

With the gentle nuns it was said that sobriety, modesty, and 
the other virtues departed also from Port-Royal. The rude 
soldiers left behind to guard the deserted house did not respect 
the retreat of God, the New Jerusalem, but allowed themselves 
licence usual to a town under pillage. And the Valley of Yvette 
itself resounded with the laments of the poor, who, coming to 
receive their customary alms, realized that they would never 
more be solaced by the charity of the tender nuns : 
" Mercy upon us ! " they cried ; " now we must die of hunger ! " ^ 

The news of the military seiziue of a handful of innocent 
women outraged even Fenelon, who had fought against the 
Letter of the Law of Ces Messieurs : 

" A stroke of authority such as that which has just been 
made at Port -Royal," he wrote, " can only excite public 

^ " Quand on est bien unie avec Dieu, on trouve Port-Royal partout." 
2 Racine, Abrege (Ed. Gazier), p. 225. 



328 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

compassion for these women, and indignation against their 
persecutors/' ^ 

Thus, exactly one hundred years after Mere AngeHque ex- 
perienced that first " Action of Grace," Port-Royal was no 
more. Since the Massacre of St. Bartholomew so cruel a deed 
had never been perpetrated in the name of Religion. Now, 
as then, both Reform and Renaissance were swallowed up in a 
moment of fanaticism, and again not only the remaining brave 
nuns and pious Solitaires stood still to ask the question of 
Fran9ois I^"^ in his captivity : 

" Ou estes-vous allez, mes belles amourettes ? ** ^ 
but all thinking France seemed to reiterate the despairing 
line of the captive king : 

" Les Arbes sont muets et sourds." ^ 

* Lettre du 24 Novembre 1709, au Due de Chevreuse. 

2 See St. Simon, Memoires (Cheruel ed. Hachette, 1905), v. p. 76. 

' " Ou estes-vous allez, mes belles amourettes, 

Changerez-vous de lieu tous les jours ? 

A qui dirai-je mon tourment, 

Mon tourment et ma peine ? 

Rien ne repond a ma voix 

Les Arbres sont meuts et sourds. 
Ou estes-vous allez, mes belles amourettes ? " 

Chanson de Francois I'^. 



CHAPTER VIII 
PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 

" Du plus saint temple, helas ! quel deplorable reste ! 
Un vieux mur est le seul qui rappelle a uos cceurs 
Cette enceinte benie, ou le Pdre celeste 
Aimait a se former de vrais adorateurs. 
Ah ! qu'au pied de ce mur une ardente pridre 
Vienne expier cent ans de profanation 1 
Et que du Dieu de paix la benediction 
De Port-Royal encor passe un port salutaire !" 

Louis Silvy 

ALMOST immediately after the desertion of Port-Royal 
des Champs by the nuns, the question arose : What 
was to become of the old monastery itself, the shell 
from which the spirit had departed ? With a glorified per- 
spective of the grandeur of the buildings, there was at first 
some idea of making the place a sort of adjunct for the ladies 
of St. Cyr. On his part, the Cardinal de Noailles continued 
to insist on the transference of the Paris nuns to the country, 
but neither the Abbess nor the nuns were anxious to go to 
the Desert. After a second visit there of two or three days 
in November, Madame de Chateau-Renaud came back with 
a swelling in her limbs, incident, she said, to the dampness. 
This settled the matter of emigration, and decision against it 
was aided by the co-operation of the Messieurs of St. Sulpice, 
who feared that if the Paris nuns went to the country the 
Jesuits would somehow acquire Port-Royal de Paris, and 
found there a rival monastery too near their own. Both 
parties, therefore, endeavoured to influence Madame de 
Maintenon to secure an order from the King for the complete 
destruction of Port-Royal des Champs. Thus, an Arret du 
Conseil, dated January 1710, in which it was represented 
that the buildings had not only become useless, but a needless 



330 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

expense to maintain, ordered the demolition of them all, 
the church alone excepted. In the early part of June of 
that same year the first stroke of the hammer was heard on 
the sacred buildings, and soon only the church remained 
standing. 

Strangely enough, it was an Arnauld who was responsible for 
the last great desecration of the Thebaide of his fathers. 
A year after the destruction of the buildings, it occurred to 
the Marquis de Pomponne that he ought to have the bodies 
of his own family exhumed, and removed for burial in another 
place. In asking permission of the King, the grandson of 
Arnauld d'Andilly said he wished this 

" in order that his posterity should lose the memory that 
these bodies were interred in a place which had had the mis- 
fortune to displease His Majesty." ^ 

Others who had relatives buried at Port-Royal following the 
example of M. de Pomponne, soon the church which had 
so long guarded the treasure of the Jansenist dead was allowed 
to be profaned by any person who chose to go there and take 
away the stones of the cloister or the tiles from the floor 
itself, even the graves being left open and gaping, at the 
mercy of thieves and treasure-hunters. And in 171 2 the 
church itself was razed to the ground. 

But we must turn from this sad picture of desolation, 
to fitly describe which the words of Racine's Athalie have 
so often been quoted : 

"Mais je n'ai plus trouve qu'un horrible melange 
D'os et de chair meurtris et traines dans la fange, 
Des lambeaux pleins de sang et des membres affreux, 
Que des chiens devorants se disputaient entre eux ! " 

to the brighter and more philosophical contrast given by 
the later history of the domain of Port-Royal des Champs. 
A pilgrimage made to the spot in 1767 ^ enumerates the dove- 
cot, the mill-house, the canal, a bit of the terrace of Madame 
de Longueville, and a few stones of the spot called the Solitude, 
sole witnesses to the former glory of the active, populous, 
and absolutely self-sufficient Monastery. 

The Revolution must have passed this desolation by as 

^ Sainte-Beuve, Port-Royal, vi. p. 237. 

2 Andre Hallays, Pilerinage de Port-Royal, p. 96. 



PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 331 

unworthy its devastation, and soon afterward the property 
was sold to surviving faithful Jansenists, pilgrimages to the 
spot then beginning. In 1809 a number of people assembled 
at the ruins to recall the life and actions of the nuns and 
Solitaires, and in 1824 the place was purchased by a M. Louis 
Silvy, son of a King's Councillor, and an ardent Jansenist, 
who had inherited the spirit of the first Port-Royal. During 
his twenty-three years' possession of the domain, he tried to 
reconstruct many of the old landmarks, replanting the Solitude, 
setting up a wooden cross in the midst, drying up the historic 
pond, and delighting his soul by composing inscriptions to 
be placed under the portraits of the Port-Royalists. What 
matter that, as M. Hallays says,i his verses were poor ? His 
enthusiasm at least was great and preservative of many a 
pious souvenir. 

In 1847, M- Silvy died at Port-Royal, in the house now 
occupied by the caretaker. Since that time the property 
has been owned by a Society of which M. Augustin Gazier 
is president, and the work of restoration has been continued 
with reverent faithfulness to the memory of other days. 

The pilgrim who to-day visits the ruins of Port-Royal 
des Champs, may travel by rail to the little station of Trappes, 
just beyond St. Cyr on the road to Chartres, and, alighting 
there, go on foot the remaining six kilometres. The road 
leads past seigneurial estates and fruitful farms, across a 
thick wood, its deep dried-up ruts reminding one of the experi- 
ences of the six ladies who journeyed thither from Versailles 
in a carriage in the year 1697, and who only after *' continued 
and great fatigue " reached the lovely spot. Like them, in 
spite of the heat and dust of a summer's day, a Port-Royal 
latter-day enthusiast would be amply repaid for the diffi- 
culties of the path by the *' charms and sweet peacefulness " 
of the Valley of the river Yvette. 

Descending from the wooded heights where the farm of 
Les Granges still yields its increase, one reaches at last the 
remains of the ancient Cistercian Monastery once so famous 
in the religious and social circles of France. Remote and 
deserted enough still to warrant the epithet of " The Desert," 
they lie hidden from the gaze of all but the most scrutinizing 
passer-by, in what may be termed the " peace of God." 
} Andre Hallays, Pelerinage de Port'Royal, p. 138. 



332 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

The former principal entrance to the Monastery, also 
that used by Madame de Longueville and her friends, is now 
closed, but, entering the grounds about a kilometre farther on, 
by the St. Lambert Gate, the first recognizable landmark 
is the reconstructed Solitude, easily repopulated in imagina- 
tion with the white figures of the shadowy nuns who passed 
in its cool shade, with knitting and other handiwork, the few 
leisure hours of the hot summer days. Surrounded by trees 
on the borders of the wooded heights, the Solitude, too, 
is hidden and remote, but a turn in the drive brings to view 
the site of the city which " lieth four-square." Glancing 
round, who could now believe that this deserted place was 
once bustling with industries of all kinds ! That two hundred 
years ago, thirty buildings stood here, all doing their part 
in the general activity — a bakery, a surgery, a pharmacy, 
a washhouse, a joinery, a forge ; a tannery producing leather, 
a mill grinding out flour, beehives giving honey, kitchen 
gardens abounding in delicious fruit and vegetables, a barn- 
yard teeming with poultry, and at times the sound of music 
and the subdued tones of children's voices. And yet the 
" unction " which so disturbed Madame de Maintenon seems 
still there, and as one stands in the midst of the encircling 
hills, alone with Nature and the memories of the past, Peace 
falls like a benediction into the spirit. 

At first glimpse, the place looks like a great farm, but 
presently a few familiar objects begin to emerge. The dovecot 
of the original Monastery (colombier) is the most picturesque 
figure in the scene, but to-day one looks in vain for the useful 
mill of olden days. In its place rise two modem farm buildings, 
one of which is occupied by the gardener-caretaker. To the 
right the next thing to meet the eye is a single ancient-looking 
tower covered with ivy, of seemingly inferior proportions. This 
is, however, the last relic of those towers of defence built by the 
Solitaires during the Fronde, from behind whose protecting 
height and strength the great warriors De Pontis and De 
Beaumont are said to have shouted defiance to the Frondists. 

The hand of the destroyer seems to have been specially 
lifted against the eastern portion of the Monastery, originally 
devoted to such outside friends as the Queen of Poland, 
Madame de Guemene, the Duchesse de Liancourt, and many 
others. For of it hardly a trace remains. Only the ruins of 




THE "SOLITUDE' 




THE CLOISTER 

TWO VIGNETTES OF PORT ROYAL DES CHAMPS. AFTER MAGDELEINE HORTEMELS 



PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 333 

a porter's lodge, and a recently discovered well, betray the 
site of either the Z-shaped dwelling of Madame de Longue- 
ville, or of the little house nestling up against it belonging to 
the Duchesse's " visible angel," as Racine called Mile de Vertus. 
But at the foot of the excavation left of the De Longueville 
cellars, Mere Angelique's cool and refreshing fountain is proudly 
pointed out, and not far away a spreading walnut-tree, said to 
have been planted by Pascal, casts a grateful shadow. On 
the spot of the apartments once occupied by Pascal, Racine, 
Boileau, Cardinal Retz, called Logement des Messieurs, there 
now extends an immense grazing field for cattle. 

Fortunately for the visitor of to-day, the site of the church 
is distinctly marked. In 1844, with M. Silvy's permission, 
the Due de Luines caused extensive excavations to be made 
there with the hope of finding the bones of his ancestress, 
the beautiful Duchesse, who with her two twins was buried 
in the choir. Unfortunately, he did not succeed in his object,^ 
but the work laid bare the foundations of the thirteenth- 
century church, which since 1652 had been covered with 
twelve metres of sand. This filling-in, which had the effect 
of falsifying the architectural proportions of the church, had 
been done by Mere Angelique, bent upon the preservation 
of the health of her nuns, and anxious to prevent the malarial 
fumes from the historic pond underneath from continuing 
their ravaging w^ork. 

The site of the excavations is sacred ground indeed, and 
fragments of columns, tombstones, etc., which lie around 
must produce a feeling of reverence. For here once knelt in 
prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving all the noble souls of 
Port-Royal, here ascended to heaven the aspirations and 
enthusiasm of which the history of the Monastery is full. 
Here, too, occurred the ceremonies, festivals of saints, and 
funeral services for the dead whose bones rested, and still 
remain in many cases unmolested, beneath the very feet of 
the visitor. For the cemetery du dehors was, according to 
custom, always near the church, pious persons loving to sleep 
their eternal sleep within the sound of the bell. 

^ But, as he wrote M. Silvy : "I have personally great pleasure in having 
restored to the light of day the ruins of an estabUshment whose venerable 
inhabitants were dear to my ancestors" (Gazier, Notice sur Port-Royal des 
Champs, p. 25). 



334 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

From the church the Porte des Sacrements led into the 
cloister, which enclosed the nuns' cemetery {cimitiere du 
dedans), and was used by the nuns, according to the rule of 
St. Benoit, as a promenade, they thus having ever before 
their eyes in life the image of Death. 

On the seventeenth-century level, just above the excavated 
site, stands a little Gothic chapel built in 189 1 by the architect 
H. Mabille ^ to replace M. Silvy's Oratory Museum, which in 
seventy years had fallen into disrepair. In front of it two 
fine portrait busts of Racine and Pascal, the glory of Port- 
Royal, invite one to enter the place where are treasured the 
last souvenirs of the former inhabitants of the Monastery : 
fragments of buildings, pieces of the windows of the thirteenth- 
century church, a plan in relief of the Monastery as it once 
stood. The stained-glass windows represent scenes of the past, 
and in gazing at these and the six engravings of Magdeleine 
Hortemels, which hang on the wall, the life of the old Port- 
Royal once more seems graphic and real. These prints are 
priceless, as they remain to this day the only authentic repre- 
sentation of the original Abbey. They also have had their 
history. In 1709, at the destruction of the Monastery, the 
workmen wished to make away with the work of the former 
nun-artist, then living with her family in Paris. With this 
idea in view, on some pretext or other they entered her father's 
book-shop in Paris, and carried off both plates and engravings 
found there to M. d'Argenson, who, after keeping them for 
some time, finally had the grace to restore them to their 
owner. 

The chapel is also the custodian of a Jansenist library of 
more than two hundred volumes, some precious collections of 
autographs, money and medals, as well as a succession of 
portraits of the most illustrious of the nuns and Solitaires. ^ As 
late as three or four years ago, the following inscription was 
affixed to the wall : 

" Ici repose Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti-Pezenas, 
Villeneu ve — Avignon — Port -Royal . ' ' 

It is the garden, however, which seems best to have survived 

^ The best description of the Port-Royal Church was uTitten by M. Mabille 
under the title L'Eglise de Port-Royal des Champs (1204-1710). 

2 For these latter, see M. Gazier's fine collection of reproductions printed 
as Port-Royal an XV IP SUcle. 



PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 335 

the ravages of the centuries. Beautiful trees, flowers, and 
fruits still speak of the presence of the recluses who tried 
literally to carry out the commands of their great Master. 

On regretfully leaving this quiet spot, the visitor is forcibly 
reminded of the neighbouring royal palace where lived the 
Court which planned such destruction. And with M. Gazier,^ 
one feels that to really understand the age of Louis xiv it does 
not suffice to see Versailles — Port-Royal is also necessary to the 
picture. 

Long before the destruction of the Champs, Port-Royal 
de Paris, as we have seen, had lost nearly all traces of its early 
character, and later in the eighteenth century it even became 
Molinistic in its views. In 1790, the nuns were expelled 
altogether. During the Revolution it was made a prison under 
the name of Port Libre, still retaining, says M. Hallays,^ 
a last spark of the Spirit of Port-Royal, its prisoners 
being " people of merit, and decency respected there." 
The next evolution of the ancient Abbey was into a Foundlings' 
Home, from which by natural transition it became the present 
Maternity Hospital. Thus, a much more tangible shell 
remains of Port-Royal de Paris than of the Mother Institution. 
To-day, by walking across the bustling Avenue of the 
Observatoire (once known as the Rue d' Enter), full of steam 
and electric trams, of automobiles, and the noise of twentieth- 
century Paris, taking a few paces along the Boulevard of Port- 
Royal (Rue de la Bourbe), and entering the courtyard of the 
Hospital, we may literally step again into the material outside 
world of the home of Truth and Charity in the days of Mere 
Angelique. 

Before us, almost in its ancient form, is the nucleus of 
the buildings which as Port-Royal de Paris were originally 
fiUed with the cloistered nuns and their pious friends. 
Here are still standing two of the houses built by 
those worldly but repentant souls, who chose the immediate 
neighbourhood of saintliness to fortify and strengthen their 
remorse and heavenly aspirations. One of these now serves 
as office to the Hospital, the other, supposed to have been that 
of Madame de Sable, is situated in the angle of the Rue de la 
Bourbe and the Rue d' Enter. Here is still the church built 

^ Port-Royal des Champs : Notice historique d I' Usage des Visitetirs, p. i. 
2 PHerinage de Port-Royal, p. 76, 



336 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

in 1644, and christened Saint-Sacrement, but how changed its 
state ! Once an imposing edifice adorned with the work of 
Phihppe de Champagne, and beautified by all the evidences of 
a living love and devotion, it is now a mere lifeless, unlovely 
chapel. In it remain few Jansenist souvenirs. It contains 
one or two poor modern paintings, a disorderly array of benches, 
an altar devoid of anything to command reverence or call forth 
admiration. In a corner, to be sure, is some fine old wood- 
work, singularly enough inscribed with the letter D, but the 
uneven wooden flooring and stained walls are the most tangible 
reminders of the ancient outward glory. 

Its " unction " is no more to be felt, except, perhaps, 
in the little corner where the tombstone of Antoine le Maitre 
stands in its old majesty, the words of M. Ramon's eulogy 
still proudly distinct, and telling of the virtues of the first 
Anchorite, or, in the greater part of the church now walled 
off and used as a laundry, where linen for the hospital lies 
stacked in white piles to the very roof, and where, underneath, 
in the choir of the nuns, hidden from the prjdng gaze, rest the 
ashes and tombstone of Mere Angelique. 

With regard to the significance of Port-Royal to-day, we 
feel that albeit the saintly nuns and Solitaires could not realize 
on this earth their particular vision of the New Jerusalem, 
" where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," 
their influence cannot die, and history shows that even now 
it is moving and inspiring serious people in Belgium, France, 
and even England. 

In 1885 a French Bishop said publicly : 

" Had God willed that we should still have the spirit of 
Port -Royal, we would not now be where we are." 

But what was the spirit of Port -Royal ? Alas ! even as 
we seek to define its essence, it seems to soar in butterfly flight 
far above us. Turning to the Constitutions, said to have been 
drawn up by Mere Agnes, we find first the ideal of the mystic 
and recluse : 

" My secret is for me, because the diffusion of good thoughts 
dissipates them, and the facility of speaking of those which 
are not good, imprints them more firmly on the mind," 

An ideal maintained, as they thought, only by aloofness from the 

1 The Constitutions of Port-Royal, p. 397. 



PORT-ROYAL OF TO-DAY 337 

world, from human intercourse and companionship. Reading 
a Httle further, we come upon the general aim of all religious 
aspiration : roughly speaking, the seeking for God, and the 
following of Him in all things : piety, mutual charity, and 
prayer being the means used. This is, however, but an 
epitome of the universal spirit of Religion, an instinct which 
never dies, but persists through all the different names given 
to it. And if one of these man-made titles, Jansenism, has 
dropped away from the feeling it covered, the initial en- 
thusiasm remains to work its leavening influence throughout 
the ages. For enthusiasm seeks out and illuminates the 
heights and the depths, makes flowery the by-paths of the 
imagination, untangles the jungles of reasoning, and fathoms 
the deep ravines of thought. Without it. History would die : 
it is Life itself, and with Pascal, we of this later age still believe 
that: 

" The whole series of human generations, during the course 
of ages, should be regarded as one man, ever living and ever 
learning.** 

For us Port-Royal lives on, and draws irresistibly in its universal 
significance. 



22 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 



Note. — The works to be consulted for the full history of Port- 
Royal are so numerous that a detailed Bibliography would be im- 
possible here. Those persons vashing to go into the subject more 
particularly, may be referred therefore to such more or less complete 
Bibliographies as are contained in the following works : — 

BibliotMque Janseniste, ou Catalogue alphabeiique des principaux livres 
J ansenistes , par D. de Colonna. (1744) ; or 

Dictionnaire des livres Jansenistes. A new edition of the above, re- 
viewed and completed by P. Patouillet. An vers, 1752. 

Repertoire alphabeiique des personnes et des choses de Port-Royal, by 
M. A. Maulvault. Paris, 1902. 

The Bibliographical Essay contained in M. Augustin Gazier's edition 
of Racine's A brege de VHistoire de Port-Royal, pp. 299-32 1 . 

Here it is possible to give only the chief authorities consulted in the 
compilation of this history. 

ANCIENT SOURCES 
MEMOIRS 

M ^moires touchani la vie de M. de St. Cyran, par M. Lancelot, pour 

servir d'eclaircissement k I'histoire de Port-Royal. Cologne, 

1738. 2 vols. 
Mimoires de Pierre Thomas, Sieur du FossS. Publics en entier pour 

la premiere fois d'apr^s le manuscrit original, par F. Bouquet. 

Rouen, 1 876-79. 4 vols. 
MSmoires pour servir ct I'histoire de Port-Royal, par M. Fontaine. 

Utrecht, 1736. 2 vols. 
Memoires et Relations sur ce qui s'est passe d Port-Royal des Champs 

depuis le commencement de la Re for me de cette Abbaye, 17 16. 

I vol. 
Memoires pour servir d I'histoire de Port-Royal et d la vie de la r^verende 

Mdre Angilique de Sainte Madeleine Arnauld. Utrecht, 1742. 

3 vols. 
Memoires historiques et Chronologiques sur I' Abbaye de Port-Royal des 

Champs, par Guilbert. Utrecht. 

In 2 parts, ist, 1755-1756. 7 vols. 
2nd, 1758-1759. 2 vols. 
339 



340 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Mimoires sur la Destruction de Port-Royal des Champs. 171 1. i vol. ♦ 

and, 
Mimoires pour servir d I'histoire de Port-Royal. 1 734-1 737. Attri- 
buted to Jacques Fouillou. 
Recueil de plusieurs pieces pour servir d I'histoire de Port-Royal ou 

Supplement aux Memoires de MM. Fontaine, Lancelot et Du Fosse. 

Utrecht, 1740. i vol. 
Mimoires de I'AbbS Arnauld. Included in the Petitot Collection. 

1834. 
Mimoires du Pdre Reni Rapin de la Compagnie de JSsus, sur VEglise 

et la SocietS, la cour, la ville et la Jansenisme. Publics pour la 

premiere fois d'apr^s le manuscrit autographe, par Leon Aubineau. 

Paris, 1865. 3 vols. 
Mimoires de Madame de Motteville. Nouvelle edition. 1855. 
Mimoires de Godefroi Hermant, docteur de Sorbonne sur Vhistoire 

ecclisiastique du XV IT Sidcle. Publics pour la premiere fois sur 

le manuscrit autographe, par A. Gazier. 1905-1908. 5 vols. 
Mimoires de Messire Robert d'Andilly, ecrits par lui-m6me. Hambourg, 

1734. 2 vols. 
Mimoires, historiques, publiques, critiques et littiraires, Amelot de la 

Houssaye, 1722. 2 vols. 
Mimoires du Sieur de Pontis. 3rd edition rediges, par Du Fosse 

(Petitot Collection), 2nd Series. Vols xxxi.-xxxii. 
Mimoires sur la vie de Jean Racine, par Louis Racine. 1747. 
Les Historiettes de Tallemant des Riaux. Mimoires pour servir d 

I'histoire du XV IP siicle, par M. Monmerque. Paris, Garnier 

Fr^res. 

HISTORIES 

Hisioire du Jansinisme depuis son origine jusqu'en 1644, par le P^re 

Rapin. Revue et publiee, par TAbbe Domenech. i vol. 
Histoire ginirale du Jansinisme, par M. I'Abbe (Dom Cerberon). 

Amsterdam, 1700. 3 vols. 
Histoire de VAbbaye de Port-Royal, par Jerome Besoigne. Cologne, 

1752. 6 vols. 
Histoire ginirale de Port-Royal depuis la ri forme de I'A bbaye jusqu' d son 

entiire destruction. Amsterdam, Dom Clemencet. 1755-1757. 

10 vols. 
Histoire Abrigie de VAbbaye de Port-Royal depuis sa fondation en 1204 

jusqu' d VenUvement des religieuses en 1709-17 10. i vol. Jacques 

Fouillou. 
Histoire A brigie de I'A bbaye de Port-Royal, par Michel Tronchay. 1 7 10. 
Abregi de l' Histoire de Port-Royal, par feu M. Racine. Avec un Avant 

propos, un Appendice, des Notes, et un Essai bibliographique, par 

A. Grazier. Paris. 
Nouvelle Histoire A brigie de I'A bbaye de Port-Royal depuis sa fondation 

jusqu' d sa destruction, etc., par Mile. Poulain. Paris, 1786. 
Histoires des Persicutions des religieuses de Port-Royal icrites par elles- 

mimes. Ville Franche, 1753. i vol. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 341 

Histoire abrSgee de la dernUre persScution de Port-Royal, suivie de la vie 
6difiante des domestiques de cette sainte maison, par I'Abb^ Pinault. 
1750. 3 vols. 

Histoire ginerale du Jansinisme. 3 vols. 1700. 

Histoire Litter aire de Port-Royal, par Dom Clemencet, avec une intro- 
duction et biographie de I'auteur, par M. I'Abbe Guettee. i vol. 

U Histoire du Jansinisme, par M. Du Bourg. 1658. 3 vols. 

Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld, par P. Quesnel. i vol. 
1697. 

Histoire EccUsiastique du XVII. sidcle. Tome ii., par Louis EUies 



du Pin. 1727. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



Apologie des Religieuses de Port-Royal. Ouvrage compose en 1 664- 166 5 , 

par Arnauld, Nicole et Claude de Sainte-Marthe. 
Arnauld, Antoine, Lettres de. 1727-43. 9 vols. 
Arnauld, Antoine,CEuvres de. Paris, 1775-1783. 43 vols. 
Arnauld, La Vie de Messire A. 1783. 2 vols. 
Arnauld d'Andilly, Robert, Lettres de. 1680. i vol. 
Arnauld d'Andilly, Robert, Les Vies des Saints Pdres des Deserts. 
Arnauld, Journal, Inedit. 1857. 

Arnauld, Mire Angelique, Lettres de. Utrecht, 1742-44. 3 vols. 
Arnauld, Mire Agnes, Lettres de. Publiees sur les textes authentiques 

par M. Faugere. Paris, 1858. 2 vols. 
Anne Marie Louise d' Orleans, Histoire de la Princesse de Paphlagonie. 

1723. 

B 

Besoigne, Vies des Quatre Eviques engages dans la cause de Port-Royal. 

1756. 2 vols. 
Bayle, Pierre, (Euvres Diver ses. Biblioth^que Janseniste. 1727-31. 

4 vols. 

6 

Calvin, John, L* Institution de la Religion Chrestienne. 17 13. 

Conti, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de, Les Devoirs des Grands. 1606. 



Divers Actes, lettres et Relations des Religieuses du Saint Sacrement 
touchant la persecution et les violences que leur ont StS faites. 1725. 
I vol. 

Dinouart, Santoliana. 1764. 

F 

Faugere, P., Lettres, opuscles et memoires de Madame Perier et de Jacque- 
line, soeurs de Pascal, et Marguerite sa niUe. Pubhees sur 



les manuscrits originaux. 1845. i vol. 



34^ THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



Goujet, I'Abbe, Vie de M. Nicole et Vhistoire de ses ouvrages. Luxem- 
bourg, 1732. 

H 

Hamon, Recueil de lettres et opuscles de. Amsterdam, 1734. 2 vols. 

J 

Jansenius, Cornelius, L'^Mg'ws/mw5. 1640. 

L 

La Rochefoucauld, Lettres de. (In Regnier's edition of works.) 

Lettres des Religieuses de Port-Royal des Champs. 1709-10. 

Le Laboureur, Une Fondation religieuse et quelques lettres de Marie de 

Gonzague en Pologne. 1889. 
Le Laboureur, Relation du Voyage de la Reyne de Pologne. 1647. 

M 

Malebranche, Nicolas, De la Recherche de la VeritS. 1674. 2 vols. 
Manuel des pelerins de Port-Royal des Champs. Au Desert. 1767, 

par I'Abbe Gazaignes. i vol. 
Mere, Chevalier de (Antoine Gombaud), CEuvres. 1692. 

N 

Nicole, Pierre, Nouvelle Methode pour apprendre la Langue Latine. 

1681. 
Nicole, Pierre, Les Imaginaires et les Visionnaires. 1685. 
Necrologe de Vahhaye de Notre Dame de Port-Royal des Champs, par 

Dom Rivet de la Grange. Amsterdam, 1723. i vol. 
Necrologe de I'Abbaye de Port-Royal des Champs. Supplement au, par 

Le Febvre de Saint-Marc et I'Abbe Goujet. 1735. i vol. 

P 
Preville, Sieur de, La Naissance de Jansenisme decouverte. 1654. 

Q 

Quesnel, Pasquier, Histoire de la vie et des ouvrages de M. Arnauld. 

1697. I vol. 
Quesnel, Pasquier, Correspondance de. Publiees avec Notes, par 

Madame Albert Le Roy. Paris, 1900. 2 vols. 



Rabutin, Louise de, AbregS de la vie de Saint Frangois de Sales. 1699. 
Relation of Sundry miracles wrought at the Monastery of Port-Royall at 
Paris. 1659. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 343 

Responses cL un ecrit publtS sur le sujet des Miracles, etc. 1656. 

Relation d'un voyage d Aleth contenant des Memoires pour servir A 

VHistoire de la vie de Messire Nicolas Pavilion Eveque d' Aleth, par 

Monsieur Lancelot, i vol. 
Relation de la Captivite de la Mdre Angelique de Saint Jean. 171 1. 
Retz, Memoires de. (In works published by Regnier.) 



Saci, Louis Isaac Lemaistre de, Le Jardin des Racines grecques en vers. 

1904. 
Saint Augustin, Confessions, traduit, par M. Arnauld d'Andilly. 

Bruxelles, 1770. 
Saint Augustin victorieux de Calvin et de Molina. 1652. 
St. Cyran, I'Abbe de, CEuvres Chretiennes et spirituelles de Lyon. i6yg, 

4 vols. 
St. Cyram, Les nouvelles et anciennes reliques de. 1648. 

T 

Tronchai, Michel, La Vie et V esprit de M. le Nain de Tillemont. 17 13. 

V 

Villefore, La vie de Madame la Duchesse de Longueville. 172^. 2 vols. 

MODERN SOURCES 



Barbier, Alfred, Rene Descartes. 1901. 

Barthelemy, Madame la Comtesse de Maure. 1863. 

Barthelemy, Les Amis de la Marquise de Sable. 

BatifEol, Louis, Le Sidcle de la Renaissance. Paris, 1909. 

Bausset, Louis F. de, Histoire de FenSlon. 1861. 

Blampignon, E. A., £tude sur Malebranche. 1862. 

Bougaud, Bishop Louis Emile, Histoire de Sainte Chantal et des Origines 

de la Visitation. 1861. 
Bouillier, F., Histoire de la Philosophie Cartesienne. 1854. 



Cadet, Les Pedagogues de Port-Royal. 1887. i vol. 

Camus, Jean Pierre, L' Esprit du Bienheureux Frangois de Sales. 1842. 

Paris. 
Collet, Francois, Fait inedit de la vie de Pascal. 1848. 
Combes, Fran9ois, Madame de Sevigne, Historien. 1885. 
Cousin, Victor, £tude sur Pascal. 1857. 
Cousin, Victor, Jacqueline Pascal. Paris, 1842. 
Cousin, Victor, Madame de Longueville. 1853. 
Cousin, Victor, Madame de Sable. 1854. 



344 THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 

Cousin, Victor, La Jeunesse de Madame de Longueville. 1864. 
Cousin, Victor, Lettves inedites de Madame de Longueville. 1839. 
Cousin, Victor, Du Vvai, Du Beau, du Bien. 1858. 



Dall, Guillaume, La Mere Angelique, d'apres sa correspondance. Paris, 

1893. 
D'Aubigne, Jean Henri Merle, Histoire de la Reformation du 16'"^ Sidcle. 

1835-53. 
De Dion, Cartulaire de VAhhaye de Porrois. 1903. 
Delmont, T., La magnifique Epopee d'Athalie de Racine. 1895. 
Du Bled, Victor, La Societe Frangaise duXVT au XX' Siicle. 1903. 



Faguet, Emile, Amours d'hommes de lettres. 1907. 

Faug^re, A. Prosper, Les Pensees de Blaise Pascal. 1844. 

Feuillet de Conches, Causeries d'un Curieux. Book II. 

¥'mot,"Edow3x6., Port-Royal et Magny. Paris, 1888. i vol. 

Flechier, Valentin Esprit, Memoires sur les Grands Jours d'Auvergne. 

1856. 
Fuzet, Jean Frederic, Les Jansenistes du XVII. siecle, etc. 1876. 



Gamble, John, A Study on Pascal. 1907. 

Gazier, Augustin, Pensees de Pascal. Edition de Port- Royal. 1907. 

Gazier, Augustin, Philippe et Jean-Baptiste de Champagne. 1885. 

Gazier, Augustin, Port-Royal au XVII. siecle. 1909. 

Gregoire, Count Henri, Les Ruines de Port-Royal des Champs. 1809. 

Giraud, Victor, La Philosophic religieuse de Pascal. 1904. 

Giraud, Victor, Pascal, l' Homme, VCEuvre, V Influence. 1900. 

H 

Hamon, A. J. M., Vie de St. Frangois de Sales. 1909. 

Havet, Ernest, Les Provinciales. 1887. 

Havet, Ernest, Pasca/. 188 1. 

Havet, Ernest, Jansenius, Evdque d'Ypres, Ses derniers Moments, 

1893. 

L 

Louandre, Ch. L. de, Les Provinciales, containing a notice on Jansenism. 

1850. 
Laborde, E. S. J. de, La Renaissance des arts a la Cour de France. 1850. 
La Ferriere-Percy, Comte Hector de, Les la Boderie. 1857. 
Larroumet, Gustave, Racine. 1887. 

La Vallee, Theophile, Histoire de la Maison Roy ale de St. Cyr. 1853. 
Lemaistre, Felix, Theatre complet de Racine, avec des remarques litteraires. 

1869. 
Lemaitre, Jules, Jean Racine. 1901. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES 345 



M 

Mersan, H., Pensees de Nicole. 1806. 

Maude de la Claviere, Les Femmes de la Renaissance. 1898. 

Maude de la Claviere, Frangois V et Louise de Savoie. 

Mesnard, Paul, CEuvres de Racine. (Regnier.) 

Migne, J. P., L' Esprit de Nicole sur les Verites de la Religion. 1843. 

Monlaur, R., Angelique Arnauld. Paris, 1901. 



Paquier, Jules, Le JansSnisme. 1909. 
Paquier, Jules, UHumanisme et la Re forme. 1900. 
Paquier, Jules, Port-Royal und Clairvaux. 1865. 
Prudhomme, Sully, La vrai religion selon Pascal. 1905. 

R 

Rapetti, P. N., ^ Lemaistre et son nouvel Historien. 1857 
Reinach, Salomon, Orpheus, Histoire Generate des Religions. 1909. 
Reuchlin, Dr. Hermann, Geschichte von Port-Royal. 1839. i vol. 
Reuclilin, Dr. Hermann, Pascal's Lehen und der Geist seiner Schriften. 

1840. 
Ricard, Antoine, Les Premiers Jans6nistes et Port-Royal. 1883. 
Royer, Collard, CEuvres computes. 1836. 



Sainte Beuve, C. A., Port-Royal. 5th edition. 7 vols. 1888. 

Sainte Beuve, C.A., Causeries du Lundi, tome iv. 1852-62. 

Sapey, C. A., Etudes Biographiques pour servir a V Histoire de I'Ancienne 

Magistrature Frangaise, A. Le Maistre. 1858. 
Schimmelpenninck, M. A., Select Memoirs of Port-Royal. 3rd edition. 

London, 1829. 3 vols. 
Silvy, Louis, Avis important, etc. 18 18. 
Strowski, Fortunat, Pascal et son temps. Paris, 1907. 
Strowski, Fortunat, Saint Frangois de Sales. 1898. 



Vallee, Oscar de, De V Eloquence Judiciare au dix-Septieme Siecle. A. Le 

Maistre et ses Contemporains. 1856. 
Varin, Pierre, La Verite sur les Arnauld. Paris, 1847. 
Vinet, Rodelphe, Etudes sur Blaise Pascal. 1848. 
Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouct de, Notes sur les Pensees de Pascal. 

1785. 

W 

Wolters, J. F. H., Etudes Litteraires sur Athalie. 1869. 



INDEX 



Alexander vii (Pope), (1655-1667), 

192 
Almanach des Jesuites (1653), 189, 

190 
Annat, le Pere (Jesuite), 189, 192, 

194, 214, 220, 231, 254, 270 
Anne of Austria, 84, 92, loi, 122, 

131, 132, 171, 184, 217, 224, 237, 
252 
Argenson (Marc- Rene d'), 326, 327, 

334 

Amauld family, 22-23, 57-59 ; Core 
and Stem," 145, 171 

Arnauld, Antoine (1560-1619), 25, 26, 
27, 28, 29, 31. 32, 37. 58, 171 

Arnauld, Madame Antoine (Catherine 
Marion, died 1641), 27, 42, 43, 44, 
118 

Arnauld, Antoine (le Grand Arnauld, 
1612-1694), 10, 28, 29, 75 ; Fre- 
quent Communion, 1 17-124 ; 
Champion of Jansenism, 124, 130, 
142, 158, 159, 184-188, 191, 194, 

195. 196, 197, 199, 201, 206, 210, 
229, 231, 247, 248, 249, 252, 259, 
261, 269, 270, 271, 282, 285, 288, 
289, 290, 291, 293, 294, 295, 296, 
300, 301, 302 ; death of, 303- 
305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 313, 

314. 316 

Arnauld, Anne Eugenie, 31, 53, 155 

Arnauld, Henri (Eveque d'Angers), 
28 

Arnauld, Marie-Claire, 30, 38, 52 

Arnauld, Madeleine, 29, 30 

Arnauld, Simon, 28 

Amauld, Angelique de Sainte Made- 
leine (Jacqueline Marie, known as 
Mere Angelique, 1591-1661), 4, 
23, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ; conversion, 
34-40, 40-47, 48-51, 72, 79 note, 
85, 91, 95, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103, 
104, 105, 112, 116, 125, 155, 156, 
157 ; charity of, 161, 162, 164, 
165, 167, 177, 180, 185, 193 ; 
Idea of Provincials, 200 note, 209, 
210, 215 ; death of, 221-226, 232, 
239, 240, 250, 256, 260, 261, 
263, 264, 265 note, 281, 295 note, 
312, 323 328, 333, 335, 336 



Amauld (Mere Agnes de Saint Paul, 
1593-1671), 32, 33, 38, 46, 47. 48. 
51, 52, 84, 102, 103, 113, 116, 155, 
156, 157, 177, 210, 211, 212, 222, 
226, 243, 244, 245, 253 note, 256, 
257, 259, 260, 263, 264 ; death of, 
288, 336 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Robert, 1588- 
1674), 27, 28, 41, 59, 67, 84, 86, 
93. 94. 95. 114, 129, 130, 131, 132, 
146, 15 , 185, 212, 215, 216, 221, 
224, 244, 249, 255, 256, 259, 261, 
279 ; death of, 289 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Madame, nde 
Mile de la Boderie), 57, 260 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Mere Angelique 
de Saint Jean, 1624-1684), 141, 
205, 225, 250, 254, 261, 263, 
269 note, 291 ; death of, 320- 
321 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Marie Charlotte 
de Sainte-Claire, 1^7-1678), 259, 
260 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Marie-Angelique 
de Saint-Therese, 1630-1700), 259, 
260 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Charles Henri, 
known as Luzancy, 1 623-1 684), 
76, 320, 321 

Arnauld d'Andilly (Jules, known as 
Villeneuve, died in 1657), I35» 146 

Aiguillon, Duchesse de (Madame 
de Combalet, Richelieu's niece), 
100, 173 

Angran (pupil in Petites Ecoles), 138 

Athalie (Play by Racine, 1690), 311, 
312, 315-317. 330 

Augustinus (controversial work writ- 
ten by Jansenius, and upholding 
the doctrine of Saint Augustine 
on Grace against the Pelagians 
and Semi-Pelagians), 12-21, 82, 
118, 123, 187, 188, 189, 262 

Bail (Louis, Priest, Doctor of Sor- 
bonne and Cure of Montmartre, 
in 1661 made Superior of both 
Port-Royals, died 1669), 222, 223 

Balzac (Jean Louis Guez, Seigneur 
de), 59 



347 



348 



THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



Barcos (Martin de, nephew'Jof St. 

Cyran, 1600-1678), 67, 122, 123, 

184 
Bascle (fitienne de. Solitaire at 

Port-Royal), 64, 65, 135, 204, 

205 
Basile (Le Pere), the Capuchin 

monk whose sermon touched Mere 

Angelique, 36 
Baius (champion of Grace and 

predecessor of Jansenius), 4, 5 
Beaupuis (M. Walon de, master in 

Petites Ecoles), 136, 137, 145 
Bernidres (M. Maignart de), 65, 147, 

148, 218 
Berulle (Cardinal de), 15, 50 
Bignon (Jerome i, 1 589-1 656), 134, 

135, 145 

Bignon (Thierry, pupil in Petites 
ficoles), 134, 145 

Bignon (Jerome 11, pupil in Petites 
Ecoles), 134, 145 

Bishops (the Four who championed 
Port- Royal : Angers, Pamiers, 
Beauvais and Aleth), 270 

Boileau (Nicolas, called Despreaux), 
10 ; opinion of Provincial Letters, 
202, 278, 281, 283, 284-286, 295, 
302 ; epitaph on Amauld, 305 
note, 308-310, 316, 333 

Bossuet (Jacques Benigne, Bishop of 
Condom and Meaux), 1 627-1 706), 
89, 151 ; opinion of Provincial 
Letters, 202, 272, 274, 289, 290, 
300 

Boulard (Mere filisabeth de Sainte 
Anne, 1 627-1 706, Abbess of Port- 
Royal from 1699 to 1702), 325 

Boulehart (Dame, Abbess of Port- 
Royal before Mdre Angelique), 
25, 325 note 

Bourdoise (M. Adrien, founder of 
S. Nicolas du Chardonnet), 15, 62 

Calvin (John), 20 

Camus (Jean-Pierre, Bishop of 
Belley), 289 

Carmelites, Les (Nuns of the Order 
of Carmel, reformed by Sainte 
Therese in 1562. Established in 
France by Cardinal de Berulle), 
234, 235, 238, 240, 273, 274 

Cas de Conscience (1702 ; difficulty 
of Formulary renewed), 322 

Casuistry, 121, 196 

Casuists, The, 196-202 

Casuistes, Apologie des (Avork of the 
Jesuit Pdre Pirot), 214, 290 

Chalais, 115 

Champagne (Philippe de), 153, 209- 
210, 212, 213 

Champagne (Soeur Catherine de 
Sainte-Suzanne), 210-213 



Chantal (Jeanne-Fran9oise Fremiot 
de Rabutin, called the Saint), 15, 
256, 257 

Chapelain (Jean), 59, 277 

Chapelet Secret, 48, 49, 51, 52 

Chateau- Renaud (Marie, Louise 
Fran9oise de Rousselet de, Abbess 
of Port- Royal de Paris in 1709), 
325, 326, 329 

Chesnai (residence of M. de Bernidres, 
near Versailles, and home of Petites 
ficcles), 135, 144, 145. 218 

Chevreuse (Marie de Rohan-Mont- 
bazon, 1600-1679), 91, 92 

Chevreuse (Due de, son of Due de 
Luynes and pupil of Petites ficoles) , 

145 

Cinq-Mars (Marquis de), 100 

Clagny, Hotel de, 44 

Clement IX (Rospigliosi, Pope in 1667), 

271, 289 
Clement xi (Pope, 1700-1721), 306 
Conde (Le Prince de), 83, 96, 233 
Conde (Charlotte de Montmorency, 

Princesse de), 234 
Conde (Prince de, called the Grand 

Conde), 108, no, 233, 235, 236, 

237, 241, 274 
Condren (Charles de. General of the 

Oratory, 1 588-1 641), 50 
Constitutions de Port-Royal (a col- 
lection of the rules, prescriptions, 

exhortations, etc., used by the 

nuns of Port-Royal; printed in 

1665), 336 
Contes (Jean-Baptiste de, 1601- 

1679), 223 
Conti (Armand de Bourbon, Prince 

de, 1629-1666), 203, 241, 243, 

246, 255, 270, 334 
Conti (Anne-Marie de Martinozzi, 

Princesse de), 241-243 
Conti (Les Princes de, pupils of 

Lancelot), 145 
Corneille (Thomas), 173 
Cornet (Nicolas, 1 592-1 663), famous 

for having denounced the Five 

Propositions to the Faculty of the 

Sorbonne), 188 
Coustel (one of the Masters of the 

Petites ]£coles), 136, 139 

D'Asson (Baudri de Saint Gilles, 
Solitaire at Port-Royal), 127, 200 

D'Aubigny (Stuart, son of Duke of 
Lenox, pupil at Petites ]£coles), 

145 
D'Aubray (Lieutenant Civil, father 
y^ of the famous Marquise de Brin- 
"?^villiers and poisoned by her), 218, 
^221, 222, 223, 255 
De la Croix (Charles, servant at 

Port- Royal), 78 



INDEX 



349 



Delorme (Marion, celebrated courte- 
san), 92 

Descartes (Ren6), 142, 295, 296, 297, 
298, 300, 303, 309 

Des Champs des Landes (pupil of 
Petites 6coles) , 147 

Des Maretz de Saint-Sorlin, 280, 281 

D'Estrees (Mme Angelique), 33, 38 

Domat (Jean), 182, 229 

Du Chemin (Charles), 77 

Du Fargis (Marie de Sainte-Madeleine 
D'Angennes, Prioress of Port- 
Royal in 1660, elected Abbess in 
1669, filling three terms success- 
ively and twice re-elected later on, 
being released from her office only 
because she had grown blind), 264 

Du Fosse (M. Gentien Thomas), 145, 
146 

Du Foss6 (Pierre Thomas, 1634- 
1698), 76, 128, 135, 143, 146, 158, 
217, 218 

Du Gue Bagnols (Guillaume, one 
of the devoted friends of Port- 
Royal), 281 

Du Guet (Jacques- Joseph, 1649- 
1733). 247, 248, 303, 306-308 

Du Mesnil (Mere Anastasie, 1649- 
1716, last Prioress of Port- 
Royal), 325, 326, 327 

Du Plessis - Guenegauds (outside 
friends of Port- Royal), 249, 250 

Du Vergier de Hauranne. See St. 
Cyran 

Erasmus, Traite sur le Manage 

Chretien, 136 
Escobar, TMologie Morale, 196 
Esther (Play by Racine, 1689), 284, 

285, 286, 316 
Eugenie (La Mere), 257, 262 
Eustace (M., Cur6 de Fresnes and 

Confessor at Port-Royal), 293, 322 

Fai (Innocent, servant at Port- Royal), 

78 

Fait et Droit, 198 

F6nelon, 327 

Filles Bleues (Order of Annonciades, 
founded in 1604 by a Genevan lady. 
Their rule was very severe ; they 
wore a white robe and blue mantle, 
whence their name of Blue Sisters) , 
261, 262 

Five Propositions (detached phrases 
presented to the Sorbonne for con- 
sideration in 1649 by Doctor Comet, 
who did not say from what they 
were taken), 184-192, 262, 270, 
306 

Fontaine (Nicolas, 1 625-1 709), 75, 
85. 139. 140, 163, 242, 270, 295 
note, 320 



Fontpertuis (Angelique Crespin, died 

in 1714), 249, 270, 307 
Formulary, 192, 219, 220, 223, 225, 

252, 253, 254, 256, 259, 262, 263, 

303, 323 
Francois i 13, 15, 328 
Fran9oise de, Sales (Saint, 1567 -1622), 

4, 10, 39. 40. 133. 134, 151, 257, 

307. 308 
Frequent Communion {The Book of the, 

by Antoine Arnauld, 1643), 117- 

124 ; effect on Port-Royal, 125- 

132, 135, 136, 158, 187, 209, 239, 

241, 308 
Friends (outside Port-Royal), 241- 

250 
Fronde, the, no, 143, 161-167 ; 

hero of, 191, 237, 238, 274, 332 

Garasse (Fran9ois, Jesuit priest, 
1585-1631. His Somme Theo- 
logique was refuted by the Abbe 
de St. Cyran and condemned by 
the Sorbonne), 10 

Garlande (Mathilde de, founder of 
Port- Royal), 22, 23 

Gibbon, 20 

Gomberville (Marin, le Roi de), 217 

Gondrin (Henri de Pardailhan de. 
Archbishop of Sens in 1646, 
adversary of the Jesuits and pro- 
moter of the Peace of the Church, 
1620-1674), III 

Gondy (Jean Frangois de. Archbishop 
of Paris and uncle of Cardinal 
Retz, 1584-1654), 46, 47, 155, 191 

Gondy (Paul de) . See'Retz, Cardinal de 

Gonzague (Anne Marie de. Princess of 
Mantua and Queen of Poland), 
97-105, 156, 185, 209, 249, 332 

Grace, Definitions of, 4, 17, 18, 19, 
188, 229, 301, 306, 328 

Grammont (Comtesse de, nie 
Hamilton, educated at Port-Royal) , 
321 

Guemene (Louis de Rohan, Prince 
de), 91, 92, 97 

Guemene (Anne de Rohan, Princesse 
de, 1608-1685), 91-98, 99, 119, 
120, 122, 184, 223, 252, 255, 332 

Guyot (M. Thomas, one of the 
masters of the Petites ]£coles), 136, 
138. 139 

Habert (Isaac, a bishop commis- 
sioned by Richelieu to refute 
Jansenius), 187, 188 

Hamon (Jean, Doctor Solitaire at 
Port-Royal, 1618-1687), 87, 125, 
149, 163, 164, 217, 248, 263, 264, 
286, 307, 318, 336 

Harlay de Chanvalon (Fran9ois de. 
Archbishop of Paris in 1670, 



350 



THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



1625-1695), 291, 292, 293, 304, 

307 ; death, 321 
Henri iv, 3, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 26, 

233 
Hermant (M. Godefroy, Canon of 

Beauvais), 212 
Honore iii, Bulle of Pope, 60 
Hortemels, Magdeleine, 334 
Huet (Bishop of Avranches), 81 
Hugo (Victor), 92 

Innocent x (Panfilio, Pope from 
1644 to 1655. Condemned the Five 
Propositions in 1653), 188, 189, 192 

Jansenius (Corneille Jansen, 1585- 
1638. M, Gazier asserts that he 
was ultramontane and believed 
in the infallibility of the Pope. 
His Discours sur la Reformation 
de Vhomme interieur revealed a 
doctrine quite the contrary to 
that imputed to Jansenism, so- 
called), 3-1 1 ; death, 80-82, 124, 
133, 134, 151, 184, 187, 190, 216, 
219, 220, 274, 281, 303, 312 

Jehanne de la Fin (two early Abbesses 
of Port-Royal), 24 

Jesuits (Order founded in Rome by 
Ignatius Loyola in 1538. Besides 
their three vows of Obedience, 
Poverty, and Chastity, they had a 
fourth, that of particular obedience 
to the Pope. They were intro- 
duced into France by Catherine de 
M6decis in 1550 to combat the 
Reform), 4, 5, 7, 26, 65, in, 119, 
121, 122, 129, 187, 189, 192, 199, 
255, 296, 329 

Jonsson (Jacques), 4, 5 

Joseph (P6re, 1577-1638. He became 
a Capuchin in 1600 and the coun- 
sellor, friend, and devoted hench- 
man of Richelieu, so much so that 
he was called The Grey Eminence. 
He was about to be made Cardinal 
when he died) , 66 

Jouvnie du Guichet, 37 

Juste-Lipse, 5, 6 

La Bruyere (Jean de), 203 

La Chaise (Pere, Confessor to 

Louis xiv), 308, 322 
Ladies of Grace, 248 
La Fayette (Madame de), 247, 315 
La Ferte Milon (birthplace of Racine), 

69, 70, 71, 73, 149, 284 note 
La Fontaine (Jean de), 277, 278, 279, 

298, 316 
Lancelot (Claude, 161 5-1 695. One 

of the masters of the Petites ficoles ; 

exiled to Quimperl6 and died 

there), 62, 63, 64, 65, 69, 75. 78, 



86, 93, 118, 134, 136, 137, 142, 143, 

149, 252, 263 
Laubardemont (Commissioner), 69 
La Valine (Catherine de, early 

Abbess of Port- Royal), 25 
Le Feure, (Master at Petites £coles), 

139, 143 
Le Maitre (Antoine, 1608-1658, 
first Solitaire of Port-Royal), 29, 
58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 
71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 85, 87, 105, 126. 
135, 149, 157, 159, 180, 185, 186, 
205, 216, 217, 250 note, 260, 269 
note, 277, 281, 319, 336 
Le Maitre (Jean de Saint-Elme), 65 
Le Maitre (Simon de Sericourt, 161 1- 
1650), 60, 61, 63, 64, 69, 71, 73, 
75, 135, 162 
Le Maitre (Isaac de Sacy, 1613-1684), 
65, 87, 118, 138, 139, 158, 159, 162, 
185, 187, 190, 191, 201, 218, 24O1 
269 note, 270, 271, 277, 288, 292, 
293, 299, 300, 314; death, 319-321 
Le Maitre (Charles de Vallemont), 65 
Le Maitre (Madame Isaac, n&e 
Catherine Arnauld), 29, 57, 60, 
155. 162 
Le Maitre (Isaac), 29 
Le Moine (Pere Pierre), 195 
Le Nain de Tillemont (historian 
and pupil of Petites ifecoles, 1637- 
1698), 79, 138 147, 148 
Le Pailleur, 175, 176 
Les Granges (farm above the 
Monastery of the Champs, added 
by Jehanne de la Fin), 24, 68, 
71, 76, 77, 127, 143, 144, 149, 
157, 159, 167, 185, 186, 292, 293, 
326, 331 
Le Tardif (La Mere Gen6vidve de 
Saint Augustin, Abbess of Port- 
Royal de Paris), 205 
Le Tourneux (Nicolas, 1 646-1 686, 
celebrated Preacher and Confessor 
at Port-Royal), 293 
Lettres Chrestiennes de St. Cyran, 

83, 95 
Liancourt (Roger du Plessis, Due de, 
1598-1674), 166, 167, 193. 194. 
252, 298 
Liancourt (Jeanne de Schomberg, 

Duchesse de), 166, 167, 252, 332 
Logique de Port- Royal, 142 
Longueville (Henri, Due de, 1595- 
1663. His first wife was Louise de 
Bourbon Soissons, his second, 
Anne Genevieve de Bourbon), 
236, 238 
Longueville (Anne de Bourbon, 
Duchesse de, 161 9-1 679), 233-240, 
245, 247, 248, 252, 255, 269, 271, 
272, 273, 274, 289, 291, 307, 330, 
332, 333 



INDEX 



351 



Louis XIII, 84, 234 

Louis XIV, 122, 143, 217, 218, 219, 

220, 222, 224, 248, 251, 252, 270, 

283, 284, 285, 289, 290, 291, 295, 

305^ 306, 316, 319, 321, 322, 324, 

327, 330 
Louvain (town of), i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 187 
Louvre (palace of), 219, 235 
Luynes (Louis-Charles d'Albert, Due 
de, 1 620-1 690, son of the Favour- 
ite of Louis XIII, the Connetable de 
Luynes. Under the name of 
Laval he composed several works) , 
165, 166, 183, 194, 252, 297 
Luynes (Louise Seguier, Duchess de), 

165, 333 
Luther (Martin), 21 
Luzarches (Robert de, thirteenth- 
century architect of Church of 
Port- Royal des Champs), 24 

Mabille (H., architect of Museum 
at Port- Royal des Champs), 335 

Maintenon (Madame de), 217, 284, 
285, 286, 316, 317, 322, 326, 329,^332 

Malebranche (Pere Nicolas of the 
Oratory, 1636-17 15), 295, 300, 
301, 302, 303 

Manguelen (M., Canon of Beauvais 
and Doctor of the Sorbonne, at 
one time Confessor at Port- Royal), 
158 

Mandement, First, 223, 224, 229 

Mandement, Second, 229 

Mandement, Third, 254 

Mandement of Cardinal de Noailles, 
322 

Mandement from Rome, 323, 324 

Marca (Pierre de, made Bishop of 
Conserans, for some time he was 
refused his papers on account of 
Gallicanism betrayed by one of 
his books, but as he disavowed 
the book he had written, he 
became Archbishop of Toulouse in 
1652, and was called to affairs 
by Mazarin. As recompense for 
his zeal in pursuing the Jansenists, 
he was appointed Archbishop 
of Paris, but died the day his 
papers arrived, 1 599-1 662), 189, 
192, 220, 251, 252 

Marguerite d'Angouleme (sister of 
Fran9ois i^'' and grandmother of 
Henri iv), 14, 15 

Marie de Medecis, 45. 46, 57, 100, 
109, 209 

Marie Therese (Queen of Louis xiv) ,2 1 7 

Marion, Simon, 27, 32, 58 

Marolles, Michel de, 99, 100, 102 

Mars Gallicus ( Jansenius' book which 
excited Richelieu against him), 
80, 81 



Maubuisson (monastery of women, 
founded by Blanche de Castille in 
1241), 30, 31, 38, 39, 41. 42 

Maure (Anne d'Attichy, Comtesse 
de), 109, 115 

Mazarin (Cardinal Jules, 1602-1661. 
Richelieu's successor at the court 
of France, and secretly married 
to Anne of Austria), 122, 131, 132, 
215, 217, 219, 237, 241, 243, 246 

Mere (Chevalier de, friend of Pascal), 
179, 197 

Methodes de Port-Royal (these were 
composed by Lancelot, and con- 
sisted in Greek, Latin, Spanish, 
and Italian Grammars), 138 

Miracles and Signs, 204-213 

Miton (friend of Pascal), 179 

Moliere, 203, 255, 277, 278, 279, 280, 
316 

Molina (a Spanish Jesuit who was 
the author of a book called 
Concord of Grace with Free Will), 
19, 120, 121 

Monmouth (Duke of, natural son 
of Charles 11 of England, pupil at 
Petites ]£coles), 145 

Mons, The New Testament of, 269, 
319 

Montaigne, 62, 175, 297, 299 

Montalte, (Louis de, pseudonym of 
Pascal in Provincial Letters), 200, 
202, 203 

Montausier (the Due de, tutor of the 
Dauphin), 151 

Montbazon, Madame de, 91, 92, 
246 

Montmorenci (Due Henri de), 107, 
108 

Montpensier (Mile de, called the 
" Grande Mademoiselle," daughter 
of Gaston d'Orleans), loi, 109, 
172, 215, 216 

Moreau, M, 127 

Motteville, Madame de, 92, 107, 235 

Mutes, the Thirty, 43 

Necrologe, 94, 103, 116, 143, 213, 
226 note, 265 note 

Nicole (Pierre, born at Chartres in 
1625, died at Paris in 1695. 
Bachelor of the Sorbonne, he did 
not seek to become a doctor. He 
composed a great many books 
on controversial and moral sub- 
jects), 136, 137, 138, 147, 149, 
184, 195, 197, 216, 229, 247, 250, 
259 note, 265 note, 269, 274, 280, 
281, 282, 289, 290, 300, 305, 307, 
308, 313, 314 

Noailles (Louis Antoine, Cardinal 
de, 1651-1729. Became Arch- 
bishop of Paris in 1695, Cardinal 



352 



THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



in 1700. Although an enemy of 
the Jesuits, he nevertheless had a 
great part in the destruction of 
Port-Royal), 284, 306, 321, 322, 

324. 325. 329 

Nouet (Jacques, Jesuit, 1605-1680), 
121, 122 

Nuns of Port-Royal (of the Cister- 
cian Order to which St. Bernard 
belonged, founded 1091-1153. As 
even in his day, St. Bernard be- 
lieved in seeking the truth out- 
side of tradition, his motto was, 
" Thou canst dispute, provided 
thy faith is unshakeable." As 
Daughters of St. Bernard, these 
nuns were vowed to the Truth. 
In his eyes. Philosophy was the 
servant of Faith). Return to 
Port- Royal des Champs, 152-160 ; 
change of habit, 155 ; " our 
ladies, our mistresses, our queens," 
156 ; dream, 218 ; and Chevalier 
de Sevigne, 245, 253 ; " Pures 
comme des anges, orgueilleuses 
comme des demons," 255 ; com- 
parison with Nuns of Visitation, 
257 ; Captivity, 259-265 ; " Re- 
lations," 261, 262, 263 ; singing, 
288 note, 294, 320, 323, 324, 327, 
328, 329, 334 

Oratory (congregation of Priests 
established in France in 161 2), 

15. 303* 304. 307 
Orleans (Gaston Due d*, brother 

of Louis XIII, 1 608-1 660), 100, 

loi, 129 
Oxyrinque (town of Ancient Thebes 

founded by the Early Christian 

Solitaires), 152 

Pallu (Dr. Victor, Solitaire of Port- 
Royal), 126, 163 

Paphlagonie, Princess de (novel by 
the Grande Mademoiselle), 109 

Pascal (Blaise, 1 623-1 662), 4, 87, 
123, 137, 138, 141, 151, 171, 173, 
174, 175 ; conversion, 176, 177, 
178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 185, 
192 ; and Provincial Letters, 
196-203, 204, 207, 208 ; culmina- 
tion of religious life, 227-232, 
231, 250, 265 note, 253, 297, 
298, 299, 300, 302, 310, 312 ; 
Penstes, 312-315, 318, 333, 337 

Pascal (Etienne, father of Blaise 
and Jacqueline), 1 71-177 

Pascal (Jacqueline, 162 7-1 661, called 
Soeur de Sainte-Euphemie) , en- 
thusiasm of, 171-183, 208, 225, 226, 
229, 232 

Passing of Port-Royal, 319-328 



Pavilion (Nicolas, Bishop of Aleth, 
1597-1677), 242, 270 

Peace of the Church (1669, a truce 
lasting ten years), 243, 246, 265, 
269, 270, 271 ; medal, 272, 288, 
289, 304, 313, 319, 323 

Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism, 
19 

Pelagians, The, 16 

Pelagius (a heretic of the fourth 
century who denied Original Sin 
and the necessity of Grace), 16 

Pensees de Pascal (published 1670), 
229, 232, 311, 312, 313-315. 317 

Perefixe de Beaumont (Hardouin de, 
1 605-1 670, Archbishop of Paris, 
Member of Academy), 209 ; visits 
to Port-Royal, 252-256, 257, 261, 
262, 263 ; death of, 288, 291 

Perpetuite de la Foi (written by 
Arnauld and Nicole. Published 
in 3 parts, 1669, 1671, and 1674), 
289, 309 

Perier (Etienne, pupil of the Petites 
;£coles), 145, 229, 312, 313, 314 

Perier (Florin), 171, 176, 206 

Perier (Madame Florin, nee Gilberte 
Pascal, 1 620-1 687), 171, 172, 174, 
180, 227, 228, 229, 230 

Perier (Marguerite, 1 646-1 733), 147, 
177, 179, 206, 207, 209, 225 

Persecutions of Port-Royal, 221-223 ; 
fortunate result of, 233, 288-294 > 
last struggle against, 319-328 

Petites ficoles (from 1 636-1 661 there 
were schools at Paris, Les Granges, 
Chesnai near Versailles, Saint- 
Jean-des-Trous, etc.), 133-142 ; 
history, masters, methods, 143- 
151 ; end, results, pupils, 187, 
218, 277 

Petitiere, M. de la (Solitaire), 128, 
161 

Petrus Aurelius {nom de plume of 
St. Cyran), 18, 50, 66, 123 

Philosophy, Port-Royal in conflict 
with, 295-302 

Picote (Charles, curate of M. Olier 
at St. Sulpice), 193, 194 

Pirot (Georges, a Jesuit friend of 
Pere Annat, and the author of 
Apologie des Casuites), 214 

Pomponne (Simon Arnauld, Marquis 
de, eldest son of Robert d'Andilly, 
twice Secretary of State), 271, 

304 
Pomponne (son of above), 330 
Pontcarr6 (Madame de), 45, 46 
Pontchateau (Sebastien-Joseph du 
Cambout, Marquis de, nephew 
of Richelieu, Solitaire and friend 
of Port- Royal, 1 634-1 690), 200, 
275 note, 289, 292, 293, 332 



INDEX 



353 



Pontis (M, de, a warrior who in his 
old age came to Port- Royal through 
M. d'Andilly), i6i 

Port-Royal des Champs, 22-25, 63, 
64, 68, 69, 71, 72, 73, 76, 85, 96, 
100, 104, 114, 126, 128, 135, 137, 
139, 143, 148, 152-160 ; description 
of, 153, 156, 159, 161, 162, 167, 
183, 185, 195, 200, 201, 213, 215, 
221, 223, 225, 231, 244, 246, 247, 

253, 263, 264, 265, 273, 277, 281, 

286, 291, 293, 294 note, 299, 
307, 318, 320, 322, 323, 324, 325. 
326, 329, 330, 331 

Port-Royal de Paris, 44, 45, 60, 61, 
64, 84, 91, 97, 100, loi, 102, 106, 
no, III, 112, 114, 116, 118, 154, 
164, 176, 177, 183, 185, 205, 206, 
218, 221, 222, 223, 225, 245, 253, 

254. 255, 257, 263, 323, 324, 325, 
326, 329, 335 

Port-Royal of to-day, 329-337 

Potherie, Le Roi de la, 205 

Pradon, 282 

Predestination, 17, 20 

Printers of Port-Royal (Savreux, 

Petit, Desprez), 198 
Propositions, The Five. See Five 

Propositions 
Provincial Letters (also called Les 

Petites Lettres, Eighteen letters 

written by Pascal in defence of 

Arnauld against the Sorbonne and 

the Jesuits), 123, 193-203, 206; 

effect on Port-Royal, 214-215, 

231, 250, 292, 312 
Pupils of Petites ficolcs divided 

into three classes, 144, 222; girls, 

150 

Quesnel, Pasquier {1634-1719), 121, 
301, 303-306, 322, 323 

Racine (Agnes de Saint Thecle, 
1 627-1 700. Becoming a nun in 
1648, she was elected Abbess of 
Port- Royal in 1690 and twice 
re-elected. She was Abbess at 
the death of Jean Racine), 277, 
280 

Racine (Jean, 1639-1699. He left 
two sons, Jean-Baptiste and Louis) , 
69, 75, 87, 138, 140 ; Petites jfecoles, 
148-151, 162, 202, 212, 247, 256, 
263, 265 ; quarrel and recon- 
ciliation with Port-Royal, 276- 

287, 289, 308, 309, 312, 315-318, 

333 
Rambouillet, Hotel de, 59, 107, no, 

235, 269 
Rantzau (Madame de, wife of the 

Marechal de. In religion known as 

la Mere Marie- £lisabeth, 261, 262 

23 



Rebours (M. Antoine de),85, 134, 136 

Regale, La, 290 note 

Reform, 12, 13, 328 

Reform of Port-Royal des Champs, 36 

Relations de Port-Royal (These con- 
sisted of a number of recitals 
of the Captivity, of journals, 
letters, etc., written by the nuns 
of Port-Royal during Persecution. 
They were kept in the archives 
of the monastery and not pub- 
lished for the most part until 
toward the middle of the eight- 
eenth century), 261 

Renaissance, 12, 13, 87, 328 

Retard (Cure of Magny), 143 

Retz (Paul de Gondy, Cardinal de, 
1 61 3-1 679. After a very dissi- 
pated youth, he became Arch- 
bishop of Corinth and Coadjutor 
of his uncle the Archbishop. 
During the Fronde, he tried to 
supplant Mazarin. Made Cardinal 
in 1 65 1, but imprisoned by 
Mazarin at Vincennes, whence 
he escaped in 1652, In 1654, ^Y 
the death of M. de Gondy, he 
became Archbishop of Paris, al- 
though never permitted to exercise 
his functions. In 1662 he ex- 
changed the Archbishopric of 
Paris for the Abbey of St. Denis, 
where, before his death, he led a 
most exemplary life, and paid his 
debts amounting to five million 
francs), 46, 95, 155, 191, 219, 244, 
251, 282 note, 298, 333 

Richelieu (Armand du Plessis, 
Cardinal and Due de, 1585-1642), 
15, 51, 66, 67, 68, 83, 84, 88, 100. 
128, 131, 132, 173. 194, 235, 236, 

Riviere, M. Eragny de la (Solitaire), 
76, 77, 161 

Sable (Madeleine de Souvr6, Mar- 
quise de, 1599-1678), 99, 106-116, 
223, 238, 239, 240, 242 note, 243 
note, 246, 247, 248, 250 note, 252, 
289 note, 335 

Sacred Thorn, Miracle of, 193, 205- 
208, 210, 312 

Saint- Ange, Madame de, 248, 249, 260 

Saint Augustine (Doctor of the 
Latin Church, born at Tagaste 
in Africa, 354 ; died at Hippo, 
Africa, in 430. He was a Manichee 
in his youth, and, converted at 
thirty-two,became Bishop of Hippo 
in 395), 4. 5. 7. 8, 16, 17, 19, 188, 
189, 190, 201, 296, 299 

Saint Cyr (Benedictine Abbey founded 
in seventh century), 32, 185, 284, 
285, 316, 326, 329 



354 



THE ENTHUSIASTS OF PORT-ROYAL 



Saint Cyran (Jean du Vergier dc 
Hauranne, 1581-1643. His works 
wer3 never condemned either at 
Rome or the Sorbonne), 3-1 1, 
41, 42, 43, 48-53, 57. 60, 61, 62, 

63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 72, 74 ; death 
and last days, 82-89, 94, 95, 96, 
117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 
124, 126, 128, 129, 133, 134, 135, 
137. 146, 151, 156, 157, 177. 184. 

193. 195. 205, 232, 248, 250, 253, 
256 note, 257, 274, 306, 312 

St. :^tienne du Mont (church in 
Paris, back of the Pantheon), 87, 
317. 318 

Saint-Evremond, M. de, 90, 98 

Saint Jacques, Faubourg of, 69, 88, 
114 

Saint Jacques du Haut Pas, 86, 89, 
116, 233, 270, 320 

Saint-Loup, Madame de, 247 

Sainte-Marthe (Claude de, 1620-1690, 
Confessor at Port- Royal), 128, 140, 
229, 230, 231, 253, 265 

Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet, 15, 62 

St. Sacrement, 47, 49, 63, 155, 336 

St. Sulpice, 193, 329 

Saint-Simon (Due de), 249 

Sales, St. Frangois de. See Fran9ois 
de Sales 

Santeuil, 293, 294, 305 

Scholastic Philosophy, 5 

Scudery, Mile, de, 59, 106 

Seguier (Chancellor Pierre de, called 
the Protector of the French Aca- 
demy). 59 

Sesmaisons (P^re), 119, 120 

Sevign6 (Renaud de, 161 0-1676), 
223, 244, 245 

Sevigne (Marie de Rabutin Chantal, 
la Marquise de, granddaughter of 
Madame de Chantal), 93, 98, 138, 
243, 244, 273 note, 274, 298 

Sevrans- (Petitcs ficoles), 144 

Singlin (Antoine, 1607-1644), 49, 63, 

64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 77, 95. 97. 
loi, 118, 157, 176, 177, 183, 185, 
198, 222, 232, 240, 246, 250, 253, 
292 

Silvy, Louis, 329, 331 

Sorbonne, La, 5, 14, 117, 122, 141, 

194, 195, 198, 199, 201, 296, 322 
Soissons (Charlotte de Bourbon- 

Soissons, natural daughter of the 
Prince of Bourbon-Soissons, and 
Abbess of Maubuisson), 42 



Tar tuff e (Play by Moli^re), 255, 

274 
Tillemont. See Le Nain de Tillemont 
Theologie Familidre^ 135 
Thomas D'Aquin (Saint, 1227-1274), 

17 
Thomas Du Foss6. See Du Foss6 
Trous (Petites ficoles), 144, 218 
Truth (the open sesame at Port- 
Royal), Nuns' idea of, 118, 119, 
201 ; Arnauld's idea of, 120 ; 
Arnauld going to Rome to defend 
it, 122 ; friends of the Truth, 
192, 204, 225, 230 ; Pascal's idea, 
263, 308 

Unigenitus, Bull of, 306 

Vaumurier (Chateau of), 165, 166, 
167, 296 

Vert or Verth (Jean de), a general 
in the service of Austria and 
Bavaria, he was made prisoner 
by the Swedes and sent to Paris, 
where Richelieu kept him four 
years), 84 

Vertus (Catherine de Bretagne, 
1617-1692), 223, 245-247, 307, 333 

Versailles, 284, 285, 331, 335 

Vitart (M.), 73 

Vitart (Madame), 69, 71, 73 

Vitart (le Petit, Racine's cousin), 
277 

Vincennes, 67, 82, 83, 84, 99, 213, 334, 
248 

Vincent de Paul (Saint, real name 
Depaul, 1574-1660), 15, 50, 63 

Visitation (Religious order founded 
in 1 610 by St. Fran9ois de Sales 
and Madame de Chantal. Directed 
by the Jesuits, this order became 
the instrument of the persecutors 
of Port- Royal), 238, 243, 256, 257, 
259, 323 

Yvette, River, 23, 43, 54, 131, 152, 
286, 326, 327 

Zamet (Sebastien, 1583-1655. Being 
ashamed of the role he had played 
in the imprisonment of the Abbe 
de St. Cyran, it is said that he never 
appeared again at the court after 
Richelieu's death), 45, 46, 47, 48, 
49, 51, 52, 66, 155, 186 

Zilly (Othon), 4 



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